What Is ‘Carry’ in Investing?

Sometimes Wall Street veterans use the term “carry” when referring to the attributes of different asset classes. But to make matters more confusing, the term also refers to a type of sophisticated trading strategy.

In its simplest form, used to describe attributes, an asset has a positive carry if it generates a profit just from owning it. Likewise, negative carry means the investor has real and implied costs to cover when owning the asset.