Copper (HG) December (Z) contract study: year-by-year results, the day-by-day shape of the move and where highs and lows printed.
Contract Almanac · Copper (COMEX)
Every December copper contract 2010–2025, measured over its tenure as the lead contract · Typically leads Aug 29 – Nov 26
The December contract is copper’s autumn seat, late August into late November, and its file is a dead-even 8 and 8 with the board’s biggest single-year swings outside winter: 2016’s +29% election-infrastructure melt-up against 2011’s −18.5% European autumn. Autumn copper has been a pure macro referendum, and the referendum has split.
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. A copper contract holds the lead for roughly two months, and the March and December contracts closer to three, so tenures run 40 to 70 trading days, far longer than an energy tenure — these are seats, not months, and the day counts read accordingly. All highs and lows are the contract’s own trades, marked by trading day of the tenure, not calendar day.