CashboardGlossary · Perps
What is a cash-and-carry trade?
A cash-and-carry trade buys an asset on spot and sells a future or perp against it to earn the premium between the two, known as the basis.
How does a cash-and-carry trade work?
Cash-and-carry is one of the oldest trades in futures markets. At expiry the future has to meet spot, so the premium you lock in on day one becomes profit wherever price ends up, minus financing and fees.
Crypto runs it mostly on Bitcoin and Ether. In bullish stretches their dated futures often trade at a premium. After US spot Bitcoin ETFs launched in January 2024, some funds started holding ETF shares and shorting CME futures against them.
Perps have no expiry. So you collect funding instead of a fixed basis, and the trade becomes funding rate arbitrage. It can pay more when demand for leverage runs hot. But the yield floats and can turn negative. A dated future's basis is locked in the day you open the trade. Funding never is.
Try it with made-up prices. BTC spot is $100,000 and a three-month future trades at $101,500. Buy spot, sell the future, and $1,500 is locked in: 1.5 percent over three months, about 6 percent a year before costs. The short leg still needs enough margin to survive a rally before expiry.
Also called: basis trade, carry trade.
Where does a cash-and-carry trade show up in Cashboard?
The nearest thing on a board is Solana edge, which prices the gap between a Solana token's spot pair and its Hyperliquid perp. Set a Price alert on that gap and you hear about it when the carry gets wide enough to matter. Perps risk adds cross-venue funding for BTC, ETH and SOL. Dated futures such as CME contracts are not tracked, and no trade is ever opened from Cashboard.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between cash-and-carry and funding rate arbitrage?
Cash-and-carry with a dated future locks in a fixed premium that shrinks to zero at expiry. Funding rate arbitrage uses a perp, which never expires, so you collect a floating funding rate that can change every hour and can turn against you.
Where can you read more about cash-and-carry trade?
Related terms
Last reviewed . Market data in Cashboard comes from the providers named on each widget and may be delayed. Nothing here is financial advice.