RBOB Gasoline (RB) December (Z) contract study: year-by-year results, the day-by-day shape of the move and where highs and lows printed.
Contract Almanac · RBOB Gasoline
Every December gasoline contract 2010–2025, measured over its tenure as the lead contract · Typically leads Oct 18 – Nov 16
The December contract closes gasoline’s year the way the September contract closed its summer: leaking. Down 10 of 16 tenures with a −2.1% median, it leads from mid-October to mid-November, when driving demand is at its yearly floor, winter barrels are cheap to make, and the market’s attention has moved to heating fuels entirely.
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.