The tradition continues. And it’s costing you money.

Every year at this time speculators in the financial markets attempt to push up the price of gasoline — using the excuse that we will soon enter the “peak driving season.”

Ordinarily, peak driving in the US starts Memorial Day weekend — which begins on the afternoon of May 27 this year — and continues until Labor Day.

In normal times, it makes perfect sense for oil and gasoline prices to jump in advance of summer. More people on the roads means greater gasoline consumption, which in turn results in higher prices.

And higher gas prices are already happening — but not because demand is rising or because there’s a shortage of either oil or gasoline. Prices are rising because energy speculators around the world are anticipating that they will jump.

That’s going to be the wrong call for the second straight year.

According to the US Energy Information Administration, the price of a gallon of gasoline now averages $2.44. That’s around 12 cents a gallon higher than it was just a month ago.

But there’s a problem with this normal course of events.

For one thing, there is too much oil and gasoline in the US and around the world. And there’s no sign that any of the major producers, in the Middle East, Russia or US, are about to cut back on the pace at which they are pulling oil from the ground.

And that’s bad news for speculators who want oil prices to spike.

Also worrisome for the speculators — but good for motorists — is that fact that US gasoline inventories, now totaling 237.7 million barrels, are still near record highs.

Gasoline inventories did fall a little from last month, but experts say that’s more likely the result of refiners starting to change over to a summer blend rather than any pickup in demand.

If we were in the year 2000, we would be at the mercy of speculators. But in 2017, the US is able to ramp up production of oil because of fracking.

While disdained by environmentalists, hydraulic fracturing is nonetheless changing the way the world views the supply of oil.

With the US less dependent on foreign oil, Wall Street speculators have less reason to hope that some outburst of violence in the Middle East is going to have much of a short-term effect on oil and gasoline prices worldwide.

There’s one other reason speculators will get screwed for the second straight year: The US economy, which seems to have barely expanded in the first three months of 2017, isn’t likely to see any kind of a boom in the second quarter.

Without strong economic growth or massive job creation, people are going to pinch their pennies and keep their road trips shorter. And that’s going to put a lid on energy prices.

So, there’s a new American tradition — screwing the oil speculators!

Sure, there will be some — like speculators and know-nothings in the media — who will look to convince you that you’ll be paying more for gasoline in the coming months. But don’t believe them. They were wrong last year, and they will be wrong again in 2017.

On a happier note, the Tribeca Film Festival is running from April 19 to April 30 with hundreds of movies and other events around the city.

This is one of my favorite spectacles. So, do yourself a favor, and go see a movie and forget all the bad stuff above.