In my testing I used $20. One tick on each side. If I had to give you a number to test with I would say use at least $50 and if possible use $75 based on real world. My strategy only takes one trade per day if conditions are met....so slippage is not that critical (although costly at the end of the year). If you are moving in and out of trades several times per day than it will be an issue.
slippage can turn a nice upward sloping equity curve into a mirror image downward slope factor in at least 1 tick for entry and 1 tick for exit
Is anyone familiar with the Stafford Day Trade System? http://www.staffordtrading.com/STCDaytrader11.pdf#search='Stafford%20Day%20Trade%20System'
Any system that becomes well known self destructs so why do so many people keep looking for a simple answer. I was pretty naive when I started trading but from day one I never thought that somebody was going to hand me a way to make money out of the market. Any system that works is probably guarded like Fort Knox. The only thing I ever found that works are certain well known patterns which continue to work because trading them successfully takes a lot of painful practice which most people are unwilling to endure.
VT - So it's been more than a year... were you able to stick to your automated system. How's it doing? JB
I am still here but not trading this automated system any longer. I could not stand the boredom. I gained too much weight. The equity curve on my "darling" system turned south and it looks to have self-destructed as best I can tell. I returned to discretionary trading currencies many moons ago. The P&L on this system is still repectable, but not good enough for me to put my capital on the line. Sorry I can not help you further. Good luck in your system trading ventures. DRT