Anyone who receives commodity offers through intermediaries knows the sequence: one acronym calls for another, and each arrives with a ready-made template. LOI, ICPO, SCO, FCO, NCNDA. They exist, they are used in the market and they have their place — but almost none of them obliges anyone to deliver or to pay.
The LOI (Letter of Intent) is exactly what the name says: the buyer declares the intention to buy, in general terms. The ICPO (Irrevocable Corporate Purchase Order) adds the word “irrevocable”, but remains a unilateral document, with no counterparty signing on the other side — the irrevocability it promises rarely holds without a contract.
On the seller's side, the SCO (Soft Corporate Offer) is an indicative offer, and the FCO (Full Corporate Offer) details specification, volume, price, delivery basis and payment terms. The FCO is the closest to a commitment, but it still depends on a contract signed by both parties to count as one.
The NCNDA (Non-Circumvention and Non-Disclosure Agreement) and the IMFPA (Irrevocable Master Fee Protection Agreement) protect the intermediaries, not the trade. They are legitimate when the chain is short and declared; they lose their meaning when they serve to keep a long chain invisible.
What turns intention into obligation is the sale and purchase contract — with specification, volume, price or price formula, Incoterm, inspection, payment instrument and governing law — signed by whoever actually buys and whoever actually sells.
At Our Goods, none of these documents goes through the form. They come into the direct conversation, after the review, and only those that the particular trade actually requires. Before that, asking for documents from someone who has not yet shown they have product, or the capacity to buy, reverses the order of the process.