One Prop Trader a Day – Goodnow Merenini: Temporary Defeat Doesn’t Mean Permanent Failure

One Prop Trader a Day – Episode 148

What if you lost account after account, and even personal funds, and still saw trading as a launch pad to financial independence? Goodnow Merenini, a financial trader from Nigeria with 3 years of experience, trades major currencies, commodities and stock indices with a top-down liquidity approach. In this interview, he explains what the sleepless nights and losses taught him, why paid mentorship was worth it, how he secured approximately 14,000 dollars in payouts between June 2025 and January 2026, and what he looks for in a prop firm.

I’m Goodnow Merenini from Nigeria. I’m a financial trader with currently 3 years of trading experience. I basically trade commodities, stock indices, and currencies. For the past 3 years I’ve been trading prop firm capital so I can build my own personal capital from the profits. I remember when I first became funded in 2024 – that was with Rocket21 Challenge. That moment felt so significant because it showed me what’s possible when one has so much belief in their goals and remains consistent towards its achievement. I remember taking myself to a nice restaurant to eat and then going shopping to get myself a few things. I could see the evident result of all my hard work.

As we all know, every successful trader at some point must have experienced some kind of temporary failure. I can remember before my first ever funded account, I lost a lot of accounts and even personal funds – 200,000 dollars, 50,000 dollars, 10,000 dollars, 5,000 dollars. But losing all these accounts didn’t make me entertain any idea of giving up. I saw trading as a launch pad to finance my dream life and attain financial independence, and I was going to give it all it takes to be successful.

The single most expensive lesson was some mentorship I paid for this year – 300 dollars and 120 dollars. Paying for these lessons was really worth it. I gained good knowledge that helped improve my trading.

Trading did really take a mental and emotional toll on me. I had sleepless nights; my sleeping pattern was disoriented. At some point it felt like depression because I was giving my all but wasn’t seeing the result I wanted. But along the way, I have been able to manage myself well – getting enough sleep and making sure I engage myself in different activities outside of trading.

For prop firms, I have traded with FundedNext, FundingPips, FTMO, Rocket21, and TheFundedTrader. What I look for in a firm is transparency – a firm that has the interest of traders at heart. A firm with clear, structured, and reasonable rules, not rules that intentionally try to keep traders unprofitable.

My trading style over the years has evolved to be more strategic and clear. Like I said earlier, I trade major currencies, commodities like gold, silver and oil, then stock indices. I do a multi-timeframe analysis before taking a trade – more like a top-down analysis. I get my directional bias on the daily timeframe, price moving from internal range liquidity zones to external range liquidity. I prefer trading in a clear trending market. So I easily see how price is breaking structures, creating new swing highs/lows, and wait for a liquidity inducement to form. Then price takes out the inducement while reacting off my point of interest price levels, e.g. order blocks and breaker blocks.

My trading day goes like this: I wake, thank God in prayers for the day and commit it into God’s hands. I try to get enough sunlight and stretch my body, get enough water, before sitting at the charts to see how price is playing out in line with my analysis. So I analyze over the weekend and try to get my directional bias, then trade according to my analysis during the week.

My recent losing trade was last week, that is ending of August into September. Market was moving according to plan but eventually geopolitical instability happening in the Middle East, US-Iran war, decided to change things for me. Situations like this just come in when you least expect. So the market eventually opened on a Monday with a gap which even made me take more losses than intended.

My biggest payout came last year. From June 2025 – January 2026, I was able to secure a total payout of approximately 14,000 dollars. Hitting this milestone just elevated my mindset into higher possibilities in the market.

Yes, people do understand what I do. I post trading content across my social media pages. Most people, especially close friends, react positively.

I believe that anything worth doing is worth giving your all. I believe temporary defeat doesn’t mean permanent failure. Our only limitation is the one we set up in our own mind. So I’ve seen the possibilities of what trading offers. I believe the risk to reward in life is worth giving your all irrespective of temporary failures.

If I am given a million dollars today, I’ll have to let the reality of that amount of money settle well within me before thinking of doing something with it. I’d create a well-structured plan on how to manage the account well with good risk while thinking in terms of percentage and not just dollar figures.