Carry can make a boring bond position attractive even when the macro view is only mildly supportive. Three quick checks before you act: 1. Name the mechanism in plain English: Not every fixed-income position needs a dramatic directional bet. Sometimes the income profile itself does much of the work. 2. Say why it matters for behavior or portfolio decisions: That matters because carry changes how patient an investor can be while waiting for the thesis to play out. 3. Set the review question: A useful review question is which funding, incentive or cash-flow channel is actually doing the work. In practice: A bond yielding attractively may tolerate a slower path to capital gains than a zero-carry macro trade. Watch for: The mistake is ignoring how much return comes from just holding the instrument competently. That is usually where the edge is: not in the vocabulary, but in the structure underneath it.