Thanks Anomaly. Do you suppose it is market orders that get hit with the full slippage? From my experience with market orders, I get hit with one tick either getting in, or getting out.
Tradestation asks for commission and slippage "per trade". I had erroneously entered $5 for commish and $25 for slippage, thinking round turn when the software is thinking per side. So I was doubling everything and really mangling my equity curves beyond recognition. When I enter $2.50 for commish and $6 for slippage, it seems a tolerable system. Still, I'm curious about using it as a directional bias filter for some shorter trades.
Here's a Q out of curiousity. Given a fairly consistent equity curve with fairly mild and consistent drawdowns, is it valid to try and up the winning percentage by buying the dips in ones equity curve...either adding contracts, or simply waiting for dips to enter and then riding till the next peak?
Also, anybody else think it's valid to backtest with zero commish and slip...just to see if there is any positive expectancy at all? I think it's helpful, especially in trying to design a smooth equity curve.
Thanks.
JohnnyK