Carry Investing on the Yield Curve

Bond carry is the expected return on a bond when the yield curve does not change. The curve carry strategy within each country constructs buckets based on bond maturities on a monthly basis and buys the government bond buckets with high carry while selling those with low carry. Combining these curve carry strategies for 13 countries, we found a global curve carry factor with an information ratio of 1.0. Returns to a global curve carry factor cannot be explained by value or momentum, and the strategy subsumes the betting-against-beta factor.