by Brian J McAboy
Are you finding that your trading profits are not as consistent as you want? Are you wanting to reliably repeat when you have winners? Of course you do! Goal #1 in trading is profiting. The second is then consistent profits. Goal #3 is steadily increasing profits.

Your bottom line results are primarily controlled by what YOU do, more so than what the markets do. There are traders making money every day, so blaming the markets is simply an excuse. If you want to profit consistently, then get more consistent in what you do in your trading.

First thing to understand is that trading is a repeated activity. That’s why having a good trading system is so vital. If you truly desire to make improvements in a process, and especially when your goal is achieve greater consistency, the three steps below are ones you can take to realize the most substantial impact on your consistency.

Step 1. Clearly define and write down your system. One of the more common errors that many traders make, especially when it comes to consistency is that they don’t have their system well-defined and written down.

When you have an procedure that isn’t documented, there will probably be inconsistencies in how the task gets performed. That is why the military is so big on following procedure: they want things to be done in a uniform, reliable and predictable manner. The same thing goes for your trading.

Step 2. Analyze your system’s critical aspects. A wise man once stated that for you to improve anything, you have to start with first measuring it. In what other way are you to know if you’re actually improving? Your trading system has several measurable aspects that make the bottom line what it is, in addition to the all-important your account balance at the end of the month.

Businesses in all industries have certain aspects that directly affect the profitability of the business. Smart managers know to track those aspects and assign measureables to them. The reason that these are so important is because by measuring each of them, it becomes very clear specifically where your opportunities for improving your system are.

Step 3. Make improvements in a controlled manner. Once you’ve conducted an analysis of your system, you now have the ability to focus on specific facets of your system to make improvements. By utilizing system analysis, you can modify your system and test - with zero risk - either through back-testing or in a demo account and determine the true impact on the system’s performance - and if there are any trade-offs.

To give you example, suppose you analyze your system and your results show that your winning percentage is currently 37%. You come up with an idea on how to improve it to 55%, which you “think” would increase your profits at the end of the month. Next would be to run the analysis on the system with the change on real market data. By looking at the results, you can see if this change accomplished it objective, but also if there were trade-offs in other aspects of your system performance, such as a reduced number of trading opportunities. It will be clear now whether you should incorporate the change or not.

Conclusion. In your trading, you wish to have consistent - and reliable - results. Spotting, entering and executing trades is an activity that you repeat on a regular basis, so if you want consistent results, focus on making what you do consistent.

Step 1 is to make sure that you have clearly defined and written down your system. By clarifying your system and then documenting it, you are more likely to repeat what you do consistently.

Step 2 is to run the metrics on your trading for a baseline of where you are now versus where you want to be. This also gives you insight into where to focus for improvement.

Step 3 is to track these measurables and take steps in a controlled fashion and without risking money un-necessarily.

There are several metrics in your trading system that directly determine your profits. Through analyzing your system’s performance and purposefully focusing on these metrics, you give yourself the best means to increase your profits. Also, this will dramatically improve your ability to consistently produce profits.

Did you know that it takes most traders an average of 7 years to reach the point of consistent profits? Can you afford to wait that long? Proper system analysis and tracking can save you years of losses, plus solve manytrading psychology issues. Discover the right way to do both and feel your confidence soar by clicking here => http://insideouttrading.com/consistent

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