E-mini Nasdaq 100 (NQ) delivery months at a glance — every contract's record over its tenure as the lead month.
Futures Seasonality · Contract-Month Study
Every NQ contract measured over its quarter as the lead contract · Updated for 2026
The Nasdaq runs the same four-seat calendar as the S&P at higher amplitude: three seats at 81% and a spring quarter whose +6.9% average is the largest on any index board, roughly half the index’s seasonal return concentrated in one seat.
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. Index contracts run a quarterly rotation: Mar, Jun, Sep, and Dec, each holding the lead for roughly 63 trading days from roll to roll.
E-mini Nasdaq-100 (NQ) — Average Change by Seat
Average change while each contract leads the board. Hover any bar for the detail.
Each row is one quarterly delivery month: how many of its seats rose while leading, the average change over the seat, and the average high-to-low range. “Typically leads” is the median window.
| Contract | Typically leads | Up / Down | Win rate | Avg change | Avg range |
|---|
Table view doubles as the accessible read of the chart above.
Spring is the crown jewel. The June seat’s +6.9% average, 81% record, and violent recoveries (2020’s +21.8%) make it the biggest seasonal earner on the index boards. Tech leads every mend.
Summer and the fourth quarter match it in consistency. Both run 81%, the summer seat on mega-cap earnings with a worst-ever of just −4.1%, the December seat on the study’s signature October-low-into-year-end route at tech amplitude.
Winter carries the rate risk. The March seat wins often (69%) but hosts the deep failures, 2022’s −17.7% rate shock the exhibit: duration-heavy tech pays first when the regime turns, and it has turned in winter.
A seat’s record tells you how its stretch of the year has treated the lead contract historically. It doesn’t tell you where the current one 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 Nasdaq contract quarter is historically strongest?
The June (M) spring seat: 81% with a +6.9% average, the largest seasonal average on any index board we cover.
Which is weakest?
The March (H) winter seat at 69%, whose losses, led by 2022’s −17.7%, run deepest when the rate regime turns.
When do NQ contracts roll?
Quarterly, mid-March, June, September, and December, third-Friday expiration, roughly 63 trading days per seat.
Contract tendencies are drawn from 16 years of individual E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures contract history (2010–2026), each measured over its own seat 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.