I'm backtesting a $50,000 acct. on highly liquid stocks like qqq, dell, csco, msft, intc, etc. How much commission do I add to factor in for slippage and commission?
do you ever actually trade... or simply pontificate, analyze and ask numerous questions? Good luck bro... I
Try this... Start with 2 cents for slippage and commish... ( aka: commish only ) Then keep raising this number until your strategy is break even. Compare this number to the average spread of the stocks you are trading. The break even number better be ahead of the comm + avg slip number by a decent margin or your in trouble. peace axeman
No, I don't actually trade. I don't have nearly enough money and won't for a long time. I'm a po' 21 y/o college student, and daddy ain't giving me a trading stake in this lifetime. Anywho, by the time I actually do put real money down, I'll have "pontificated, analyzed and asked so many questions" that hopefully I'll be ahead of the curve.
The interesting thing about this business is that it is largely a function of experience. You must read and analyze everything you get your hands on but the critical lessons will come from actual trading. Start your trading now.
It would be impossible for me to start trading. As I said, I don't have the money, and there's no way I could get the money because I have no income. Second, I'm going to be in Europe for the next year and a half then I'm going to law school for 3 years. There's no time to trade. The best I can hope for is to have a collection of systems up my sleave when I have the time and money to actually trade. About your experience comment-- were you refering to discretionary or system trading? It seems to me that system trading doesn't require much actual experience if one backtests and develops systems correctly. I could be wrong, but I always thought the meat of system trading was in the preparation. Execution is just a matter of sticking to the plan.