No, not literally. What I mean with “near death” is the condition where market volatility pushes rate very close to your stop-loss, the point of death. Here’s the common feeling: you can’t exit out a trade before hitting your stop-loss order, because who know, the market may reverse its course and get you out of trouble (?)

Ha, it’s rare, but it did happen to me several times. I was watching the pair GBP/JPY coming right at my stop-loss order. I kept telling myself “I’m not going to move the stop-loss, I’ll be disciplined and take responsibility…” You know what? A few seconds later, market just took away my trade and quickly reversed its course. I was staring at the rate movement… all the way passing the “supposed-to-be” my take-profit order!

Well, I couldn’t blame the broker, and certainly couldn’t blame the market. Perhaps I didn’t plan the trade well, or perhaps, that’s just the nature of life!

You may have thought that for this highly volatile pair GBP/JPY I should have expected a wider range? The problem is, nobody, even the experienced bankers, can be certain which range the market will move within. I did test out the theory of putting further stop-loss and closer take-profit orders, just to find out that the market moved so quickly against my favor that the stop-loss order got hit first.

It looks easy, just up and down, buy low sell high… Yet once you’re in, there seems to be an evil force that fight against your chances. I know, just my perception!