What does Cost of Carry mean?

The cost of carrying or CoC, is the expense incurred by an investor to hold certain positions in the market until the futures contract expires. This cost includes the risk-free interest rate. The CoC does not include dividend payouts from the underlying.

CoC is the difference in futures and spot prices for a index or stock . Because CoC is an important indicator of traders' willingness to pay more for futures, a higher value CoC means that they are willing to pay more.