Spiko Cash & Carry: everything you need to know about our new product

Cash and carry. Traders have been running this strategy to put their cash to work for about as long as futures markets have existed, and the idea behind it fits in one sentence. The same asset often has two prices at once, one for now and one for later, and whoever has cash on hand can earn the difference. Since last week, this trade is also the newest addition to our product suite. Spiko Cash & Carry, officially the Spiko Cash and Carry Fund, is a professional fund (AIF) built on an index calculated by MSCI, the global indices provider, and executed by Marex, a global financial group.

Since we started talking about it, you have asked us plenty of questions. What does the fund actually hold? Where does the performance come from? What are the risks? This article answers them one by one. No prior expertise required. As always, we start from the basics.

‍

A new source of yield for your cash: the cash and carry trade

Our product suite follows a simple logic. With Spiko T-Bills, your cash earns daily interest through Treasury bills issued by the most solid nation-states. With Smart Cash, it earns interest at the risk-free rate plus a spread negotiated contractually with a global systemically important bank, BNP Paribas. Spiko Cash & Carry adds a third layer, tapping a new source of yield: the gaps between futures and spot prices across many asset classes, starting with digital assets.

Let's unpack it with a simple example.

Take any asset that trades on a futures market: commodities like oil or wheat, equities, digital assets, currencies, or rates. At any moment it has two prices. The spot price is what you pay to buy the asset right now, say €100. The futures price is the price at which you can commit, today, to sell the asset at a fixed future date, for example in one month, say €101.

When the futures price sits above the spot price, a situation finance professionals call “contango”, the following trade becomes available:

1. Buy the asset at the spot price of €100. This is the "cash" part. You own the asset from that moment on.
2. At the same time, sell a one-month futures contract at €101. You have just locked in your selling price.
3. Hold both positions for the month. This is the "carry" part.

Whatever the asset does during that month, the two legs offset each other. If the price rallies to €120, the asset you own gains €20 and the futures contract you sold loses roughly €20. If the price crashes to €80, the reverse happens. Your outcome does not depend on the direction of the price. It depends on the gap between the two prices. And before expiry, that gap itself can move. If it widens, the position temporarily loses value. If it tightens, it gains. Held to the end, the gap closes by construction, and you keep what you locked in on day one. In our example, that is €1 on an outlay of €100, roughly 1% over the month.

That gap is called the "basis". The yield you earn by holding the position until the two prices converge is the "carry". This combination, buying the asset with cash and carrying it while being committed to sell it forward, is the cash and carry trade. It is not a bet on prices rising or falling. It is closer to earning a fee for providing a service to the futures market.

{{callout-1}}

Why does this price gap exist?

At this point, you may be wondering why the market leaves such a gain on the table.

Because someone is paying for the other side. Futures are the easiest way to gain exposure to an asset with leverage. A trader can be "long" without owning or storing anything, and without putting up the full amount of cash. In digital asset markets especially, demand for that kind of exposure has been strong in recent years, and it is precisely this demand that pushes futures prices above spot.

For every leveraged buyer, however, someone has to take the other side of the contract. Sellers rarely want the opposite bet, so they usually hedge themselves by buying and holding the actual asset, which ties up real capital for the month. The basis is the compensation for that service. In short, the basis is what leveraged buyers pay to cash-rich investors. Spiko Cash & Carry sits deliberately on the cash-rich side of the trade.

The gap is not always there for the taking. Arbitrage keeps it in check, and in bearish markets it can shrink or even turn negative.

‍

A strategy run by rules, not by a manager

Spiko Cash & Carry is built to capture whatever carry the market offers at any point in time. When the gap is wide, the strategy harvests it. When it is too thin to be worth trading, as is the case in bearish stretches, the money remains in cash, Treasury bills and money market instruments, until conditions improve.

Who decides on which assets to allocate, when to enter and when to stand aside? We already did. Every decision was made in advance, when the strategy's rules were written. The fund's performance tracks the Spiko Cash and Carry Index (SPKCCI), calculated every day by MSCI. The index follows a public rulebook designed by Spiko together with Marex and MSCI. We defined the strategy's rules, and MSCI implemented them so that they run systematically. The index level is published on Bloomberg and Refinitiv. No discretion, no market views, no improvisation.

{{callout-2}}

The rulebook, in essence:

• The universe currently covers four digital assets: Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Solana (SOL) and Ripple (XRP), all accessed through one-month futures listed on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), one of the world's largest regulated derivatives exchanges.
• Each day, the index measures the carry available on each asset and allocates to the most attractive ones. It only invests if the annualised carry, after deducting the SOFR rate (Secured Overnight Financing Rate, the risk-free reference rate for the US dollar), clears a minimum threshold. Below that level, the trade is not worth its costs. The money then stays in cash and earns the SOFR rate, minus the strategy's fees.
• Positions are built step by step, at most 20% of the portfolio per day depending on the asset, so that no single day's prices dictate the entry point.
• As a contract approaches its expiry, the index has two options: roll the position, in whole or in part, into next month's contract, or let it run to expiry. It rolls only if that next contract still offers carry above the threshold, and it does so gradually, over the expiring contract's final trading days.
• Whatever is not rolled runs to expiry, precisely when convergence between spot and futures is guaranteed by construction. The carry locked in at entry is therefore collected in full.

For those who want to go further, the rulebook is available here.

In practice, Marex implements the strategy and issues a note (a debt instrument) whose value tracks the index, and the fund simply buys that note.

The fund comes in two share classes. SPKCC is denominated in US dollars, and eurSPKCC is denominated in euros and hedged against EUR/USD currency moves.

In terms of fees, the fund charges no management fee. Operating expenses are capped at 0.10% of assets under management per year, and a 25% performance fee applies to any performance above SOFR for the USD class or €STR (Euro Short-Term Rate, the risk-free reference rate for the euro) for the EUR class. The costs associated with implementing the strategy itself are already reflected in the published index level.

{{callout-3}}

What are the risks?

Four risks deserve your attention before allocating your treasury to SPKCC.

The basis can move against you in the short term. The yield comes from the futures price converging toward the spot price by expiry. Day to day, though, the gap can temporarily widen, and the fund's net asset value can fall. Historically, the gap has moved by more than 1% in a single day. Such a dip only becomes a realised loss if you redeem at that exact day. A position held to expiry collects the convergence mechanically.

The note issuer. The fund's exposure comes through a note issued by Marex Financial, so the fund is exposed to Marex's default, as with any debt instrument. This is the product's main structural risk. Marex Financial is regulated by the FCA and carries an investment-grade rating (BBB from S&P).

The roll can give back part of the carry. Rolling involves two different contracts. First, the index buys back the contract about to expire. Second, it sells the following month's contract, which locks in a new selling price for the month ahead. If the gap on the expiring contract has not fully converged by that point, buying it back costs part of the month's expected gain. The index limits this risk by rolling gradually over the contract's final days, when convergence is usually well advanced, and by rolling only into contracts whose carry still clears the threshold.

Timing between signal and execution. The index reads prices at one point in the day and trades occur a few hours later. That gap is deliberate: it gives Marex the time to actually deploy the capital in the market once the signal is given. If the market moves in between, the carry actually captured can differ from the one measured. Because positions are built and unwound gradually, any single day's slippage affects at most 20% of the portfolio.

In every case, your cash is never locked. Redemption orders can be placed any business day, and you receive your cash two business days later. But be clear about the horizon: this product is built for medium- to long-term treasury, not cash you might need on short notice.

‍

Spiko T-Bills, Smart Cash, Cash & Carry: which one for which cash?

Our product suite now has three core products, each built for a different job in your treasury. Here is the picture in one table.

‍

In short: who is Cash & Carry for?

Cash & Carry is aimed at companies, institutional investors and experienced individuals who qualify as professional clients. The minimum initial subscription is €100,000 (or its US dollar equivalent).

It is a complement to your core yield products, not a replacement. The cash you may need at any moment belongs in Spiko T-Bills or Smart Cash. Spiko Cash & Carry is for the layer above: cash you can commit for more than six months, in exchange for a yield that aims beyond the risk-free rate and does not rest on the direction of equities, rates or digital asset prices.

The product is live today. The fund documentation is available on our website, and our team will gladly walk you through the details.

At Spiko, we give businesses, institutions and individuals simple access to regulated cash management products. Our money market funds hold Treasury bills issued by the most solid states and deliver the risk-free rate in euros, dollars, pounds sterling and Swiss francs. Smart Cash adds a contractual spread on top of that rate, through Amundi's expertise in swap strategies. And Spiko Cash & Carry now opens a new source of yield for the cash you can commit for longer.

‍