Gold trades can be trying experiences (7)
I believe the answer is:
ordeals
'be trying experiences' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'gold trades' is the wordplay.
'gold' becomes 'or' ('or' is the heraldic name for gold).
'trades' becomes 'deals' ('deal' can be a synonym of 'trade').
'or'+'deals'='ORDEALS'
'can' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for ordeals that I've seen before include "Testing experiences" , "Difficult experiences, hard times" , "Tribulations" , "difficult tests" , "Trying experiences" .)