Spot prices, refreshed hourly; base metals converted to per tonne. "ind." marks hand-entered indicative values.
Commodity broking · from a working desk
You never buy the cargo.
You put the buyer and the seller together.
Copper, gold, oil, sulphur. Mines to ports to factories. I broker physical commodities for a living. This is the manual I wish someone had handed me, and the desk I run it from.
Start free: Guide 01 by email, no card. Membership from $99 a month, further down.
Counterparty checks
Paperwork, in order
Rule on this desk: the SPA is not signed until the fee agreement is.
Fictional example. No real deal, company or figure.
Where to start
Start free. Go further when it is useful.
Free · Guide 01
Start here: how commodity broking actually works
- What a broker actually does, and why you never buy the cargo
- How you are paid, and when
- The six steps every deal runs on
- What kills most first deals
- What you need before you start
The First Deal Kit · $29.99 once
Spot the fakes, verify who is real, get the paperwork right
- The red flags catalogue, and the question that ends each scam
- The nine checks to run on every seller and buyer
- Every template: NCNDA, LOI and ICPO, FCO checklist, fee agreement, tracker
45-page PDF, instant download.
See inside the kitHow a deal runs
Six steps. The first three are yours.
Every deal on the desk sits at exactly one step. Reach the contract at step 4 without a signed fee agreement and you are working for free.
- 1Seller sourced and verified
- 2Buyer sourced and verified
- 3NCNDA signed, introduction made
- 4Fee agreement, contract and payment instrument
- 5Inspect and load
- 6Documents to the bank, and you are paid
Inside the desk
Your own pipeline on the six steps
Track the deals you are working on, get a fee-at-risk warning the moment one reaches the contract without a signed fee agreement, and keep your verification folders in order.
Read the guides in the members' area or download the PDFs. Your own deal desk comes with Premium, along with the mandate desk and the weekly call.
The library
13 guides in Standard, 2 more in Premium
In the order you need them, all open from the day you join, with the templates.
Start here
The job, what a day consists of, how and why you are paid, the six steps of a deal, what kills first-timers, what you need to begin, and an honest timeline.
The players
Producers, mandates, buyers, agents, brokers, paymasters, lawyers, banks, inspectors and the shipping side: what each wants and fears, what each can sign, how to tell a genuine one from a pretender, how chains split the fee, and where you fit.
Pick your lane
How each family of commodities actually trades: the grades buyers name, the benchmark and how it is quoted, parcel sizes, payment terms, where the fraud sits, what a first deal looks like, and why you start with one product.
The deal lifecycle
What happens at each of the six steps, the documents, time and questions that belong to it, what 'done' and 'stuck' look like, running several deals at once, and when to kill one.
Paperwork, in order
What each document is for, who issues it to whom, what it must and must not contain, how binding it is, the line that shows the party is real, soft versus firm offers, the order they belong in, and which ones you should refuse to sign.
Protecting your fee
NCNDA, IMFPA, the fee clause in the SPA and the paymaster: how each closes a gap, the clause wording that matters, fee agreements in a chain, the fee-at-risk test, and what to do once a fee has already gone wrong.
Verifying a counterparty
The nine checks in order: registry extracts by region, licences, signatory authority, mandate letters, past shipping documents, bank comfort letters and proof of funds, trade references, site visits, sanctions screening and the KYC file, and when to walk away.
Payment instruments
Documentary credits at sight and usance, standbys, demand guarantees, collections, escrow and open account, a UCP 600 credit walked from application to payment, the SWIFT messages (MT700, MT760, MT799, MT103), and where your fee sits.
Pricing formulas
Index less discount and the quotational period, provisional and final invoices on a 90/10 split, tolerance, concentrate pricing with treatment charges, penalties and precious-metal credits, iron ore, gold, energy and agri formulas, all with checkable arithmetic on made-up numbers, and how a percentage fee follows the final invoice.
Inspection and shipping basics
The inspection regime (SGS and its peers, draft survey, sampling, assay exchange and umpire, verifying a certificate), Incoterms 2020 from EXW to DDP, the bill of lading and its variants, laycan, NOR, laytime and demurrage, vessel sizes by cargo, and trial cargo then programme.
Red flags and scams
Fake mandates, joker brokers and daisy chains, upfront fees, proof-of-funds and comfort-letter games, leased instruments and MT760 demands, SKRs, vault photos, tank-farm diesel, fake bills of lading and SGS reports, and the three questions that end most of them.
Your first 90 days
Where the names come from, the letters that get replies, the follow-up sequence, running a pipeline on the six steps, and the funnel maths behind it all.
Templates pack
NCNDA, IMFPA or fee letter, LOI/ICPO, FCO checklist, verification checklist, deal tracker, mandate letter and introduction email: the clause-by-clause structure of each, model wording for the clauses that matter, what to negotiate, what never to concede, and the defects in circulating versions.
Premium
The guides, plus my network and my time
The mandate desk
Send me the mandate you hold or the requirement you have. I match it privately against my own network in copper, gold, oil and more, and make the introduction under paperwork that protects everyone.
UAE structures for commissions
How I am set up to receive fees: the free-zone company, what the bank asks a broker for, and the mistakes that cost people months.
Weekly check-in
One call a week. Bring the deal you are stuck on. Questions taken in advance so nothing is rushed.
Plans
Membership
Monthly, billed through Whop; cancel any time. Read what each plan includes below; neither plan includes deals done for you or any guaranteed introduction.
The guides. Everything I wish I had been told before my first deal.
- ✓13 guides covering the whole deal, to read online or download as PDFs
- ✓Templates: NCNDA, IMFPA, LOI, verification checklist, deal tracker
- ✓New guides as they are written
- ✓Cancel any time
The guides, plus my network and my time.
- ✓Everything in Standard
- ✓Your own desk: the full broker's terminal for your deals, with the cargo map, pipeline, documents, counterparties and fee protection, saved to your account
- ✓The mandate desk: send me what you hold or need, and I match it against my own network
- ✓Introductions made under an NCNDA, with the fee agreement signed before any contract, so you keep your position
- ✓UAE structures for commissions: the guide to how I am set up
- ✓The deal structuring playbook
- ✓The example desk: the same terminal filled with invented deals, to see how it works
- ✓Weekly check-in call, questions taken in advance
Who this is for
- People with a network in one commodity who want to turn it into fees.
- Traders and shippers who keep meeting “brokers” and want to be the one who actually closes.
- Anyone who has been burned by a fake mandate and wants to know how to tell next time.
Who it is not for
- Anyone expecting a deal to close in their first month.
- Anyone looking for guaranteed buyers, guaranteed sellers or guaranteed anything.
- Anyone who wants me to run the deal for them. I show you how; you do the work.