WTI Crude Oil (CL) May (K) contract study: year-by-year results, the day-by-day shape of the move and where highs and lows printed.
Contract Almanac · WTI Crude Oil
Every May crude contract 2011–2026, measured over its tenure as the lead contract · Typically leads Mar 18 – Apr 16
If the dip-and-run shape lives anywhere on the CL board, it lives in the May contract. Nine of its sixteen tenures bottomed inside the first five trading days, the median low arriving on day 5, and the median high waits until day 16. It leads from mid-March to mid-April, and its record leans respectably green: 10 of 16 higher, with a +5.1% median.
Each year is one contract, measured from the open of the day it took over the lead to the close of the day it handed off, the same roll convention used across all Traders Brief research. Tenure lengths vary by a few trading days from year to year, so day counts differ slightly at the tail. All highs and lows are the contract’s own trades, marked by trading day of the tenure, not calendar day.