contracts.8 One can also see that the negative returns were less for non-winter months. That is, although returns were severely negative for most natural gas futures contracts, they were worse for winter months through the maturity spectrum. For example, for the first year out the contract months 2 through 6 did poorly, representing the contracts for November 2006 through March 2007, while in months 7 through 13 the negative returns are less severe for the months April 2007 through October 2007. This pattern is seen for contracts in future years as well. This pattern would not bode well for a strategy that is long winter and short non-winter months.