Gold (GC) delivery months at a glance — every contract's record over its tenure as the lead month.
Futures Seasonality · Contract-Month Study
Every gold contract 2010–2026, measured over its seat as the lead contract · Updated for 2026
Gold’s board rotates through five active delivery months, not twelve, and each holds the lead for two months or more, the December contract for nearly four. Measured seat by seat, the metal’s year has one clear champion, one long coin flip, and a summer that mostly marks time.
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. Gold contracts lead for roughly two months each (the December contract closer to four), so these are seats, not months, and the ranges read accordingly.
Gold (GC) — Average Change by Seat
Average change while each contract leads the board. Hover any bar for the detail.
Each row is one of gold’s five active delivery months: how many of its seats since 2010 rose while leading, the average change, and the average high-to-low range of a seat. “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.
The turn of the year is gold’s season. The February contract, holding the board from Thanksgiving to late January, has risen in 12 of 16 seats with a +4.1% average and the mildest worst-year in our entire study at −3.7%. Nothing else on the gold board approaches it.
The middle of the year mostly drifts. The June and August seats, covering spring and early summer, lean flat-to-red with small magnitudes, and the April seat has been the inheritance-spender after February’s payoff, this year’s −16.1% correction the sharp example.
The four-month December seat is a war of two seasons. Spanning August through November, it contains both gold’s autumn strength and its September trap, and sixteen years have fought to a draw: 8 up, 8 down, with the September seam usually deciding each year’s outcome.
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 gold contract month is historically strongest?
The February (G) contract, up 12 of 16 seats (75%) with a +4.1% average while holding the board through the turn of the year.
Which gold contract month is weakest?
The August (Q) seat has the lowest win rate at 40%, and the June (M) seat is nearly as soft at 44%. Gold’s late spring and summer have mostly drifted.
Why does gold only have five contract months here?
Only five delivery months (Feb, Apr, Jun, Aug, Dec) actually take the lead on the gold board; the others exist but never carry the volume. Each active seat leads for roughly two months, the December seat nearly four.
Contract tendencies are drawn from 16 years of individual Gold 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.