The takeaway
iShares Global Energy ETF shows a slight seasonal lean over 10 years of data — strongest in November (+3.0%) and softest in April (+2.2%).
Right now
In July, the fund has risen 60% of years, averaging +0.3%, roughly 1.8 pts behind the S&P 500.
The full picture
iShares Global Energy ETF's most dependable month has been November, higher in 7 of 10 years; April has been its least reliable, up just 30% of the time.
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Month by month
The fund's clearest edge over the S&P 500 lands in January (+1.8 pts); it has trailed the market most in July (−1.8 pts).
“vs S&P” is iShares Global Energy ETF’s average for a month minus the S&P 500’s average for that same month — isolating iShares Global Energy ETF’s own seasonal edge from broad market drift.
Reality check
Over the last 5 years, November has closed higher 80% of the time versus 70% across the last 10 years — the pattern is strengthening.
Figures are the typical (median) November return and how often it rose — the last 5 years versus the last 10(the heatmap’s default window). This verdict stays anchored to that 10-year window even if you zoom the chart, so it never disagrees with the badges above.
In plain English
This is a fund you can almost set a calendar by, and November is the anchor — it has closed higher in 7 of 10 Novembers, the steadiest beat on its year.
Read it with one caveat: the average (+3.0%) runs well ahead of the median (+1.4%), so a handful of outsized years — not steady strength — do much of the lifting. That reliability comes with real swings, mind — even November ranges by 8.3% from year to year, so any single year can land far from the average. Better still, that strength is the fund's own and not just a buoyant market — November has outpaced the S&P 500 by +0.7 points on average. Some of that is a strong month market-wide, mind — November rises for about 62% of stocks — so the tendency is real if not unique.
It doesn't stand entirely alone — January, February, and March have leaned firm as well, if less emphatically. At the other end of the calendar, April is the year's low point, though even there the fund has stayed positive on average (+2.2%), a sign every month leans up, and the edge isn't year-round — the fund has trailed the S&P 500 in July, March, and December. Its roughest month on record was a −32.1% March in 2020 — a reminder of how hard even a seasonal name can fall.
If anything it has sharpened recently — the last five Novembers run ahead of the earlier years.
For a fund this dependable in November, the sharper question is the rest of the year — outside its strong stretch, the calendar gives far less to lean on.
Short answers on the fund's best month (November), its worst (April), and whether it really trades seasonally.
Only mildly. The fund's months are fairly even — November is the firmest (+3.0%) and April the softest (+2.2%), a narrow spread that points to weak seasonality rather than a strong calendar effect.
November has been the strongest, averaging +3.0% and closing higher in 7 of 10 years since 2016.
It's the weakest month, but it has still averaged a small gain (+2.2%) — quiet rather than genuinely bad.
Explore
These names have the strongest July track records on record — a starting point for comparison.
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