What is Apteros Trading All About and Who Exactly is Merritt Black?
Apteros Trading is a service run by Merritt Black that offers training for traders, as well as an opportunity to earn a seat on his proprietary trading desk. So not only is high-level education and mentorship available, but it’s also possible to get funded.
Before launching Apteros Trading, Merritt Black was the Head of Futures and Commodities Trading at SMB Capital, so it’s safe to say he knows a thing or two about how to become a successful day trader. In fact, his specialty is developing traders from scratch.
I haven’t quite had a chance to work my way through his NADRO course yet, but based on everything I’ve experienced regarding Merritt Black (YouTube videos, podcasts, etc.), I have a pretty good feeling about the training and funding opportunities he has to offer.
I think the fact that he offers training, mentorship, and an opportunity to get funded legitimizes him as a trading educator. Not only is he himself in the trenches every day, but he actually has an incentive to develop as many high-performing students as possible.
Merritt Black’s level of loyalty and devotion to student performance is unrivaled in the futures trading space. His main goal is to generate consistently profitable traders and fund them with as much capital as they can handle. By doing so, all parties benefit.
What is NADRO – Is it the Best Futures Trading Training Program?
NADRO is a framework that Merritt Black and all of his students and prop traders use to understand and analyze markets. It’s not some sort of magical indicator or foolproof system, but rather a way to look at markets in a systematic, probabilistic way.
NADRO is an acronym that stands for Narrative, Acceptance, Developing Value, Rhythm, and Order Flow. These main topics form the basis of the NADRO methodology. Merritt utilizes NADRO specifically for futures, but it’s a framework that applies to all markets.
To put it simply, NADRO is a top-down approach to markets that helps frame context. In essence, it’s a methodology that allows you to decode “what is” instead of what you want to see. It’s not about predictions – it’s about seeing markets as they are.
Once you see markets as they are, you can form short-term biases based on how markets are moving in regard to value (price, time, and volume). Most traders think price action alone is king, but price action is only a piece of the contextual picture. Context is king.
I won’t go much more in-depth on the NADRO methodology because I haven’t been through the course yet, but from YouTube videos and podcasts, I can tell that Merritt approaches markets much differently than the average self-proclaimed trading guru.
Apteros Offers Professional Training Alongside Merritt Black With Unlimited Potential:
One of the main things that stands out with Apteros is the fact that they offer both professional training and the opportunity to try out for a seat on their proprietary trading desk. So the incentive for Merritt to develop consistently profitable traders is clear.
He has a stake in every student’s success – the more effort he puts into education, training, and mentorship, the more students will try out and get funded with firm capital, and the more money both him and his students make. So it’s a win-win for everybody.
This incentive isn’t necessarily there for other trading educators only selling training. You’d probably like to think that these individuals actually care about you, but many times they put much more effort into advertising than actually creating quality products.
The sad reality, especially in the trading education industry, is that you don’t necessarily need a great product/service in order to make sales. If you show luxury cars, stacks of cash, and highlight lifestyle components through marketing, you can virtually sell anything.
But that’s not what Apteros does at all. They offer high-level training and mentorship with a clear end goal – to fund you with as much capital as you can reasonably handle. They actually care about your development because your success is ultimately their success.
Conclusion – Is Apteros Trading Worth Pursuing to Learn, Train and Get Funded?
Again, I haven’t yet been through the NADRO course, but I have a good feeling about what Merritt Black has to offer at Apteros. Based on what I’ve seen and heard regarding his methodology, it’s clear that his training is different than what you might typically find.
We’re talking about an ex-prop trader who was once the Head of Futures Trading at SMB Capital – a prop firm created by Mike Bellafiore and Steve Spencer in Midtown Manhattan, known for producing some of the most elite traders in the game.
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SMB Capital also runs a similar model where all of their prop traders have gone through the same in-house training program – a program that they believe helps lay the groundwork for becoming a great trader. The training helps SMB recruit talented individuals.
This same sort of approach seems to be what Merritt Black has taken to Apteros – to provide the necessary training and then funding for success. In my opinion, this type of business model serves both the training providers and users extremely well.
In the future, I look forward to digging deeper into Apteros Trading and everything they have to offer. But if you have firsthand experience with Merritt Black and Apteros Trading, please share your thoughts and experiences in the comments section below.
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Written by Matt Thomas (@MattThomasTP)
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- How Much Money Do Day Traders and Swing Traders Make?
Very nice of you to explain how Apteros Trading works – the NADRO training and prop trading opportunity. It was a pleasure to learn about this opportunity since I haven’t seen anything like it before. I think everyone would like to do some kind of trading but they are mostly afraid to take risks. With the emphasis on training, you dispelled many of my own personal doubts.
Hi Bojana – you bring up a great point. I think a lot of people are interested in trading for the potential rewards, but many are afraid to pursue it because of the risks. When you boil it down – trading is gambling – and there’s no way to completely eliminate risk. But there are ways to effectively manage risk, behave from a probabilistic perspective, and develop a strong mindset for operating within the market environment. People often ask the question: “is trading gambling?” because they associate gambling with acting impulsively and losing money. But there’s a major difference between good gambling/trading and bad gambling/trading. So not all gambling is the same. People often assume gambling is a bad thing because most approach it from the wrong angle (acting erratically, improperly managing risk, etc.), but that’s not what good traders do.
In regard to Apteros Trading specifically, I think the NADRO training combined with the opportunity to get funded as a futures trader through the prop desk is a powerful combination. There are so many course creators and service providers out there that don’t really have an incentive to help you all that much once you’ve purchased something. But this kind of business model benefits all parties. Merritt is incentivized to train his NADRO students as well as possible so that they can build skills and consistency – and ultimately get funded. And his students are incentivized to take his training seriously and work hard because there’s potential to get funded with large five, six, maybe even seven-figure accounts (that they might not otherwise have the possibility of trading by going it alone). Sharing in the profits generated through hard work and proper training is a win-win for both parties.
To learn how to trade this program seems like an ideal way to go about doing it. The cost for the training might be worth the knowledge and mentorship but how applicable are the trading tools with little to no capital to invest? I always want to learn more about how to trade stocks and crypto, I mean who doesn’t? But the one question that we do not get answered is how do we go from our last paycheck to fully sustainable income from trading?
Hi Alex – I can’t speak too specifically about the NADRO training because I haven’t actually been through the course (at least not yet; I hope to in the future). But from following Merritt Black and Apteros Trading on Twitter, YouTube, and the Apteros website, I have a pretty good understanding of what his training is all about – and based on that, I do think it’s most likely a good one. And to answer your question about learning/training and then having little to no capital to trade with – Apteros Trading is also a prop desk that funds traders who can prove their abilities to manage risk and grow accounts. Traders who pass the tryout start with a $50,000 funded account, but there’s room for virtually unlimited scaling if you demonstrate consistent results. So in short, Apteros offers elite-level training and mentorship from an ex-prop trader (Merritt Black), as well as an opportunity to earn a large five, six, and potentially even seven-figure account trading on his prop desk.
I see that you mentioned stocks and crypto, but keep in mind that Merritt specifically trades futures. The NADRO training can be applied to any market/instrument/timeframe, but the prop desk solely trades futures. And to answer your last question, you have to understand that achieving consistent, sustainable trading success is extremely hard. It takes a lot of time, effort, and legitimate training (much like the path of a doctor, lawyer, or professional athlete) – so don’t expect overnight success. Building foundational habits and skills can easily take 6-12 months, which most people who dive straight into trading either don’t expect or aren’t willing to do. They get attracted to trading for the money, and as a result, following the proper process (which is what actually produces long-term sustainable success) gets kicked to the curb. So it’s very important to go into it with proper expectations. One last thing I want to mention is that your growth curve as a trader will be nonlinear, meaning sometimes you’ll work really hard and do everything right (properly prepare, follow your plans, etc.) – and still not make money (and possible even lose money) some days, weeks, and months. But that’s just how it goes sometimes. Trading is about playing probabilities and executing on favorable risk-reward setups, but there are no certainties/guarantees on any individual or small sample size of trades. How effectively traders handle loss, risk, and uncertainty (from both a psychological and tactical level) are what separates the long-term winners from the losers.
Apteros seems to offer a good approach to active trading. And with proper training, elite traders can be formed. However, I will keep researching Merritt Black. Listening to him in his promotional video, he seems to be a down-to-earth individual. But further research is always good. Thank you for introducing me to Apteros. I am interested!
Further research is definitely good – I highly suggest it. I personally want to dig much deeper into what Apteros has to offer as well – especially the NADRO course they offer. I just haven’t had the chance to do that quite yet. I don’t usually post about trading courses, programs, or services before experiencing them for myself for at least a few months, but I have a really good feeling about Merritt Black and Apteros. This is an individual who traded for a living for about a decade at one of the most respected proprietary trading firms in NYC – SMB Capital. And as the Head of Futures Trading there, he has a history of training and developing consistently profitable traders. So it’s clear that he knows what it takes to trade at a serious/professional level. I look forward to diving into Apteros further in the near future.
Don’t hesitate to come back and share your thoughts and experiences after further research. Take care!
I have never heard about Apteros trading before. It will be interesting to have a look and give it a try. I am very interested in proprietary trading. Having a platform like Apteros trading offering high-level education and mentorship from Merritt Black should be a bonus for traders. Having the possibility of getting funded based on that training is great. I will definitely be sharing this article with my friends and family.