What is carry on an investment?
Andrew Ramirez
Published Apr 06, 2026
Carried interest, or carry, is a profits interest form of compensation for fund organizers based on their work in providing a return on investment for the fund’s members.
What is carry salary?
The private equity carry (or simply “carry”) is performance compensation that the partners of a private equity fund receive if they exceed a specific threshold return. This compensation is meant to align the private equiteers with their capital providers, as the majority of their compensation comes from the carry.
Do hedge fund managers pay taxes?
Taxation on hedge funds is similar to that on private equity, at least in the United States. There, they could be taxed at long-term capital gains rates, or they could be taxed at short-term capital gains rates. Most importantly, they won’t and never will be taxed as ordinary income.
What is waterfall calculation?
The waterfall calculations clarify how returned capital will be divided between the investors and the fund manager, and in what order. Administrators can walk CFOs through waterfall calculations, as well as provide a thorough explanation of an LP agreement, but CFOs will still want to know how to do it themselves.
How is carry paid out?
The carried interest is paid when companies become liquid, only after the limited partners have been paid back all of their investment. They get paid for their time, immediately, and they take little risk: their fee is not linked to business success.
What does negative cost of carry mean?
Sometimes, futures trade at a discount to the price of the underlying, which makes the cost of carry negative. This usually happens when the stock is expected to pay a dividend, or when traders execute a reverse-arbitrage strategy that involves buying in spot market and selling futures. This reflects bearish sentiment.
What is full catch up?
Catch-Up Clause This clause is meant to make the manager whole so that their incentive fee is a function of the total return and not solely on the return in excess of the preferred return.
What is the use of waterfall chart?
Waterfall Charts are used to visually illustrate how a starting value of something (say, a beginning monthly balance in a checking account) becomes a final value (such as the balance in the account at the end of the month) through a series of intermediate additions (deposits, transfers in) and subtractions (checks …
What is free carry shares?
free carried interest means the interest derived from holding shares of which the holder enjoys all the rights of a shareholder but has no obligation to subscribe or contribute equity capital for the shares; Sample 1.