The harsh realities traders face, in the battle to succeed, laid bare

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People move into trading often with wildly unrealistic expectations. After a time, the realities of the challenges posed by trading start to dawn on people. What seemed like a simple activity that would produce great profits and a chance to live an independent life, become a struggle and battle which strains every ounce of mental energy they possess.

That battle is constant, those who eventually win through have usually created a personal trading practice that enables then to survive the internal turbulence, that accompanies navigating the terrain of financial markets.

In the episode of the AlphaMind Podcast attached to this article, we talk with Merritt Black, founder & head of trading at Apteros Trading, a proprietary trading firm. Prior to founding Apteros, Merritt headed futures and commodities trading at SMB Capital. 

This interview broadens out to cover a whole range of themes around the behaviours, mindsets, and attitudes traders need to embrace to power their development and growth and to cope with the huge mental and psychological challenges posed by trading.

Merritt is our first returning guest, the previous episode with Merritt in September 2019 proved enduringly popular and has remained one of our most downloaded episodes. In this new episode, as in the previous one, Merritt shares a depth of wisdom, honesty, and humility which is rare. He allies that with an ability to encapsulate the key challenges traders face in their battles they face with both themselves and the markets. 

In this episode, Merritt also talks about the benefits of working in a proprietary trading business. He tells how working in a proprietary trading firm supports traders by fostering their trading development and providing them mentorship and guidance and a collaborative experience as they progress in their trading careers. 

This episode is full of nuggets of wisdom, too numerous to mention and summarise. One thing is for certain though, the listener will learn so much from this episode that will both educate them and challenge them on some of their deep-held beliefs.