why does this happen?

I have been demo trading for a while now and it seems like my stop loss is getting hit prematurely. For instance, I had a stop loss on the USD/JPY this morning at 94.518 and the price jumped up at 10:00am to 94.510 and triggered my stop loss. Then, immediately shot back down. Why? Why? Why? I don't get it.

Boy you're going to be asking that question a lot if you take up Forex trading. Set your stop losses well away from your trading area as a last resort close. If a trade goes against you - I mean somewhere you had not planned - just close it. This is good trading style. Then you can let your winners run.

It's no good complaining about .8 of a pip, especially on a demo account.

This is one reason why I am tending to trade for days or weeks. It is less intensive and stressful and the initial entry can be on a lower time frame set up.

By the way, welcome to Forex factory and good trading to you.

I asked the same question to my broker during my early days. This is the reply I got:

"Since you were short your stop loss would be executed based on the Ask price which is not shown on the charts. Charts are indicative of the Bid price. You can enable your charts to show the ask price as well by right clicking on the chart, select Properties, then click on the Common tab. Once there select the box Show Ask Line."

You should know at which price (Ask or Buy) you either Buy or Sell and if you buy back a Short Positon at what price this would be.

It's common to see the price jump one way before breaking out the other way. My guess is that it's how the big players flush out the majority and getting a good position for themselves. If you have too tight a stop loss, chances are it gets broken. If you don't, chances are your losses run loose, exhausting your equity in no time. It really does seem like a lose-lose situation. I've yet to find out a solution to this so if anyone does, kindly enlighten us...

I had a pretty good feeling it was due to the bid/ask price difference. Thanks for the posts guys.

BTW, did anyone happen to catch that CHF/JPY pinbar from a few days ago on the daily? Just wondering if anyone got in short with me on that one.