WTI Crude Oil (CL) delivery months at a glance — every contract's record over its tenure as the lead month.
Futures Seasonality · Contract-Month Study
Every contract 2010–2026, measured over its tenure as the lead contract · Updated for 2026
Ask what crude does in November and you get one answer. Ask how the December contract itself trades, from the day it takes over the board in late October to the day it hands off in late November, and you get a sharper one. This is the study almost nobody runs: 193 individual CL contracts, each measured over its own time in the lead.
Most seasonality tables slice the calendar. This one slices the contracts. Each delivery month below is measured over its time as the lead contract: from the open of the day it takes over the front of the board to the close of the day it hands off the lead. No roll gaps, no splicing, one contract per observation. A CL contract leads for roughly a month, ending a few sessions before its expiration when volume hands off to the next month, the same roll convention used across all Traders Brief research.
WTI Crude (CL) — Average Change by Contract Month
Average change while each contract leads the board. Hover any bar for the detail.
Each row is a delivery month: how many of its 16 contracts since 2010 rose while leading, the average change over the tenure, and the average high-to-low range. “Typically leads” is the median window that contract runs the board.
| Contract | Typically leads | Up / Down | Win rate | Avg change | Avg range |
|---|
Table view doubles as the accessible read of the chart above.
The February contract owns the turn of the year. Up in 12 of its 16 tenures (75%) with an average gain of 3.1%, the G contract leads from mid-December to mid-January and has been the most reliable stretch on the crude board. Brent’s equivalent turn-of-year contract confirms the same signal at 79%, two barrels reading one rally.
The autumn pain belongs to the September, December, and January contracts. The U contract, leading through late July and August, has risen just 6 of 16 times with an average loss of 2.9%. The Z contract, leading late October into November, averages a 3.0% drop, the deepest on the board, and the F contract behind it averages another 2.6% decline. When people talk about crude’s weak autumn, these are the three contracts actually carrying it.
Spring contracts move the most while they lead. The April contract’s average tenure range is 23%, the widest of the year, with May and June close behind near 19%. The spring contracts pair a modest upward lean with the year’s biggest travel, so the opportunity and the risk arrive in the same envelope.
A contract’s record tells you how its month has treated the lead position historically. It doesn’t tell you where the current lead contract sits today, whether this cycle is tracking the record or fighting it, or the levels that matter into the next session. That is what The Traders Brief does every morning, across energy, metals, and the indexes.
See today’s read →Which crude oil contract month is historically strongest?
The February (G) contract, up 12 of its 16 tenures since 2010 (75%) with an average gain of 3.1% while leading the board from mid-December to mid-January.
Which crude oil contract month is weakest?
The September (U) contract has the worst win rate, up just 6 of 16 (38%) averaging −2.9%. The December (Z) contract averages the deepest loss at −3.0%.
When does each CL contract become the front month?
Roughly a month before its named month: the December contract typically leads from about October 18 to November 16, handing off a few sessions before expiration as volume rolls forward. The table above shows each contract’s typical window.
Contract tendencies are drawn from 16 years of individual WTI Crude Oil futures contract history (2010–2026), each measured over its own tenure as the lead contract, and describe the past. They are not a forecast and not trading advice. Markets can and do trade against their record in any given year. © 2026 The Traders Brief.