Every term is defined twice: once the way a filing would put it, and once the way somebody would explain it to you across a table. The second one is usually the one that sticks.
Showing 3 terms
The annualised gap between the futures price and spot, calculated as ((futures − spot) ÷ spot) × (365 ÷ days to expiry).
Roughly in line with short-term interest rates in an ordinary market. A negative number is not automatically bearish: check for a dividend before expiry first, because the futures holder does not receive it and the price discounts it.
The gap between short-term interest rates in two currencies, which sets the forward premium and therefore the slope of a currency futures curve.
The same idea as cost of carry in an equity future, met on a currency chart. It is a financing number, not a view about either currency.
Closing a position in the expiring series and opening the same exposure in the next one, rather than settling it.
NSE publishes the percentage and Indian commentary quotes it every month without the one thing that gives it meaning — whether it was the longs or the shorts who rolled. Read it against the stock’s own three-month average, and beside the cost of carry.