Futures Seasonal Charts — 5 to 30 Year Comparisons

Markets with a Calendar

Some markets live by the calendar. Corn and soybeans follow the planting-growing-harvest cycle. Heating oil demand peaks with winter, gasoline with the summer driving season. Natural gas storage fills and draws on a schedule you can nearly set a watch by. Seasonal charts make those rhythms visible: the average price path of a market across 5, 15, or 30 years, laid over the current year so you can see whether prices are following the script or breaking from it.

5-year seasonals — the recent regime, useful when market structure has shifted
15-year seasonals — the working standard for most grain and energy analysis
30-year seasonals — the long arc, smoothing out individual extreme years

How Seasonals Fit Into Hedging

For producers, seasonals answer a practical question: is the market offering me a historically good price for this time of year? When a staged hedging program is on the table, the seasonal view is one of the first things a qualified advisor looks at. Seasonal strength into harvest is normal; seasonal weakness before planting is normal; knowing what normal looks like keeps you from mistaking an ordinary dip for a disaster.

Seasonal Charts FAQ

What is a seasonal chart in futures trading?

A seasonal chart plots a market's average price path across the calendar year over many years — typically 5, 15, or 30 — showing when prices have historically tended to rise or fall. It is a tendency map, not a prediction.

Why are grain futures so seasonal?

Because supply arrives on a biological schedule. Planting, growing, and harvest create predictable windows of scarcity and abundance every year, and those windows repeat in the price pattern.

Do seasonal patterns always work?

No. Seasonals describe what prices did on average, not what they must do this year. A drought, war, or policy change can override any seasonal tendency. Seasonals are one input to a decision, never the whole decision.

See This Year's Seasonal Setup

Seasonal pictures change year to year. Registered commodity professionals walk through the current setup for your market as a matter of course — our partner network can connect you with one.