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Cash-Carry, Triangular, and Bond Arbitrage

Cash-and-carry, triangular, and municipal bond arbitrage terms used in futures, FX, and tax-exempt bond analysis.

Cash-carry, triangular, and bond arbitrage terms describe pricing relationships that can break across spot, futures, currency, and municipal-bond markets. They are useful only when the price gap is large enough to survive bid-ask spreads, funding costs, margin, settlement timing, borrow constraints, taxes, and execution risk.

Use Cash-and-Carry Arbitrage when the question is whether a spot asset and futures or forward contract are mispriced after carry costs. Use Triangular Arbitrage when three currency-pair quotes imply an inconsistent cross-rate. Use Arbitrage Bond when the issue is municipal tax-exempt bond proceeds and arbitrage compliance rather than a normal trading setup.

Strategy labelMain marketEvidence to check
Cash-and-carry arbitrageSpot and futures or forwards.Spot price, futures price, financing, storage, income, delivery terms, margin, and transaction costs.
Triangular arbitrageForeign exchange.Executable bid/ask quotes, order size, latency, settlement, counterparty, and fill quality.
Arbitrage bondMunicipal tax-exempt bonds.Tax certificate, proceeds investments, rebate calculations, escrow records, and bond counsel analysis.

These pages are educational. They do not recommend trades, guarantee execution, or replace legal, tax, or risk review.

In this section

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Arbitrage Bond

An arbitrage bond is a state or local bond whose tax-exempt status is threatened by prohibited investment arbitrage on bond proceeds.

Cash-and-Carry Arbitrage

Cash-and-carry arbitrage buys a spot asset and sells a futures or forward contract when the futures price exceeds full carry cost.

Triangular Arbitrage

Triangular arbitrage uses three currency trades when quoted exchange rates imply an inconsistent cross-rate after spreads and costs.

Revised on Sunday, June 21, 2026