Do you find that your trading profits are not as consistent as you want? Are you wanting to confidently repeat when you have winners? Of course you would! The first goal in trading is profits. The second is then making money consistently. Goal #3 is steadily making greater profits.

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

A good starting point is to realize is that trading is a repeated activity. That's why making use of a good trading system is so vital. If you truly desire to make improvements in a process, and particularly when your objective is to realize more consistent results, the three steps below are ones you can take to have the most substantial impact on your consistency.

Step 1. Clearly detail and document your system. One of the made by traders, particularly regarding consistency is that they don't have their system well-defined and written down.

If you often engage in an activity that isn't documented, it is likely that there will 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 is true for your trading.

Step 2. Measure your system's critical aspects. A wise man once said that for you to improve anything, you must begin by first measuring it. How else are you to know if you're making progress? With trading you have several measurable aspects that determine your bottom line, along with the all-important profit/loss number at the end of the month.

Most every business has certain aspects that directly affect the profitability of the business. Savvy business owners know to track those aspects and assign metrics to them. The reason that these are so important is because through a calculated analysis of these factors, it becomes very clear specifically where your opportunities for improving your system are.

Step 3. Tweak your system through meticulous actions. Once you've conducted an analysis of your system, you can now focus on those particular aspects of your system to improve it. By having a method for this analysis, you can make changes to the 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 - in the specific area you seek.

As an example, suppose you analyze your system and find that your winning percentage is currently 37%. You come up with an idea on how to improve it to 53%, which you "think" would increase your profits at the end of the month. You then run the analysis on your newly modified system on real market data. By looking at the results, you can see if this change indeed did what you expected, but also if there were trade-offs in other aspects of your system performance, such as a lower profit-to-loss ratio. It will be clear now whether you should stick with your current system or go with the modification.

Summary. Trading is a process from which you wish to have consistent - and reliable - results. Spotting, entering and executing trades is an activity that you do regularly, so consistent profits is your goal, focus on making your actions 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 measure your trading to establish where you are now versus your desired goal where you want to be. This also let's you see your opportunities for improvement.
Step 3 is to track your metrics and take steps in a controlled manner and without risking money un-necessarily.

There are a handful of metrics in your trading business that have substantial impact on your bottom line. By measuring your system's performance and paying particular attention to these metrics, you give yourself the best means to increase your profits. Also, this will dramatically improve your ability to consistently produce profits.