system
A chat on subreddit /r/wallstreetbets
human
So, they have a yield on them rolling out the contracts and it's negative? Like a negative roll yield?

gpt
Yes. Further dated contracts cost more - that's contango. So when they trade close to expiration contracts for further out contracts they have to pay for it, taking money out of the ETN's value in order to maintain their targeted average expiry date.