What backwardation pays and costs

roll yield

The income earned by maintaining long exposure across a backwardated curve: each roll sells the dear expiring month and buys the cheaper next one. It is the market's payment for bearing tightness, it accrues to longs and is charged to shorts, and it is rented rather than owned - the curve re-sets the terms at every roll, and the income dies with the tightness that created it.