Heating Oil / ULSD (HO) April (J) contract study: year-by-year results, the day-by-day shape of the move and where highs and lows printed.
Contract Almanac · Heating Oil (ULSD)
Every April heating oil contract 2011–2026, measured over its tenure as the lead contract · Typically leads Feb 17 – Mar 16
The April contract is heating oil’s lottery ticket, and its jackpots dwarf even crude’s. This file contains a +65.5% tenure, printed this very spring, and a −38.7% tenure from the COVID collapse. It leads from mid-February to mid-March, the seam where winter diesel demand dies, and the market has repeatedly chosen exactly that window for its most violent statements in either direction.
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.