What is funding basis carry?

Funding basis carry studies the compensation available from funding rates and the gap between perpetual futures and spot or index prices. Systematic traders use it to evaluate relative-value opportunities while controlling directional exposure, liquidity, and venue risk.

Perp markets use funding to keep contract prices near the underlying reference. When positioning is crowded or liquidity is constrained, funding and basis can become rich enough that hedged or relative-value trades may be attractive.

Funding can compress quickly, hedges can become imperfect, liquidity can vanish, borrow or collateral assumptions can break, and exchange-specific rules can change the realized economics of the trade.

Alphora's catalogue includes funding and basis-oriented signal examples so researchers can inspect the idea as a reusable component instead of treating carry as a single static trade.