By leasing assets, usually in the form of United States Government Treasury Bills, for a fraction of their face value, the ability to purchase and subsequently resell bank instrument in large quantities is possible. This is the principal on which leveraged treading-programs revolve. The leased assets provide the collateral against which the instrument are purchased and resold, with the entire process taking only one or two days to accomplish.

The large profits produced by trading programs is created by the difference between the purchase cost and resale price of the instrument. Even with a net profit of four per cent per transaction, the process of buying and selling can be performed several times each week, providing for profits which make the return on other investments pale by comparison. A 4% profit produced just once weekly for forty weeks would total 160%.

By leasing assets, the profit is generated on a much larger amount of instrument, greatly increasing the total dollar profit. For example, if a four percent profit were generated on $100 million, the net profit would be $4 million. Leasing assets typically requires the payment of three percent of the face amount per month, in advance: to lease $100 million in assets would require the payment of $3 million. However, by using the leased assets, profits can be generated on $100 million worth of instruments ($4 million), not just $3 million ($120,000). Even if just one transaction occurred during the month, the profit created would exceed the cost of leasing the assets.