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