The most commonly used Commodity is the financial instrument known as the 10-year Medium Term Note, or MTN. MTNs are issued by very large banks and sold at a discount, bought and resold by other banks, hedge funds, and other large financial entities, and ultimately purchased by an exit buyer. The exit buyer is an entity such as Life Insurance Company or a pension plan that wants to hold it for the term of the MTN in order to collect the 7-8% coupon yield. Freshly issued/cut MTNs are usually bought and sold several times before they end up in the hands of the exit buyer, the final buyer.

Although these programs are in operation year-round, the transactions will only take place on weekdays when the bank granting the credit line to the Trader is open. The Trader typically receives a trading line of credit equal to 10 times the value of the Client's participation amount. If the Client's cash on deposit is $10M, then the platform is probably trading with $100M. Plus the trade platform can, and typically does, trade that $100M up to 4 or 5 times a day, four days a week. It is this 10:1 leverage and the high frequency of completed trades that enable the Trader to produce extremely high weekly and monthly returns to the Client.

Since the Trader is not permitted to simply trade his own funds, it should be noted that the Trader must always be acting on behalf of a Client, you, for whom he is conducting the trade. The role of the Client is to provide an asset, such as a cash bank account, that is needed to initiate the program.

The Trader is key to PPPs because the structure of these programs require that the large banks cannot buy and sell these instruments from each other directly. These transactions have to be handled by a third-party Trader. That Trader uses a line of credit that is extended to him by a bank to support his activities. The credit line activated based on the asset provided by the Client. Each transaction is a managed buy and sells in that the trader is required to have a commitment from a buyer before making a commitment to purchase the MTN from the seller. In many cases, this arrangement is subject to bank approval before each transaction can be consummated. Once it is initiated, the transaction is over very quickly as transfer of the MTNs and funds are accomplished electronically.

Although Clients involved in $100–500 million plus programs are generally expected to use the bulk of the yield from their programs on Projects that strengthen the economy or provide philanthropic benefit, some smaller programs are designed to enhance a Client’s participation capital, and do not have this specific requirement.

When there is a need to support a Project, it can be met in many ways. The Client can be raising capital in order to fund a large economic or philanthropic Project. The Trader will sometimes have specific Projects to be supported by his share of the yield, and may take a greater share of the gross yield for that Project so the Client has no obligation to have their own Project. In cases where the Client does not have a Project, but the Program requires one, the Client may have a portion of the yield go to support Projects approved by the United Nations or supplied by the Trader himself.