If you want to make consistent money in the stock market, you can’t afford to play it by ear. You have to have a game plan, and you have to be in it for the long haul. If what you’re looking for is shortcuts to make a quick buck in the stock market, this is not the article you need to be reading. With this out of the way, let’s move on to the ten steps to consistently making money in the stock market.

1. Set your goal. Take your personal factors into consideration to come up with the type of portfolio that best suits you. Then analyze every potential investment by thinking about what you want out of it and whether or not it fits into your overall investment plan. Just like a sports coach, have your X’s and O’s ready, don’t react to the market. This will save you a lot of headaches and money.

2. Devise a strategy. If you look up stock market investment strategies, it seems as if everyone has THE winning formula for success in the stock market. Obviously, they can’t all be right, although there are some time-tested principles that all the greats have never strayed from. Find one of these strategies that you’re most comfortable with, take it, and literally run with it. As in everything, you might come to a point where you have to improvise and make a little detour, but those moments should be the exception; changing your plan when a situation arises should never be the rule.

3. Determine potential risks. Make sure that you’re able to correctly determine risks that undoubtedly come hand in hand with every opportunity. One way to do so is to look at your potential investments with as critical an eye as possible, and to devise your management plan accordingly. You’ll be happy you did because you will be able to minimize your losses even in the event that a particular investment turns out to be a money-losing proposition. Notice how this step comes before profit assessment? This is to make sure you don’t get overwhelmed with excitement before you size up the gamble you’re taking.

4. Gauge profit potential. Based on the profit potential of your investment, you should be able to determine price points where you sell and get out. One of the biggest hurdles for novice investors is knowing when to get out of an investment. They eventually wait too long and lose some of their on-paper gains.

5. Study possible alternatives. A little extra homework might unearth other investments that carry fewer risks or a better profit potential; or maybe there is another strategy that will make things simpler for you (and hopefully bring you a little more money in the process).

6. Analyze the obstacles. If you did go through the trouble of having an initial strategy, you will find that this step is a natural continuation of it. By anticipating the possible shortcomings of every investment, you put yourself in the position of doing just that.

7. Have your plan B handy. Set specific boundaries as to when you should get out of an investment. Whether everything goes wrong and you need to bail out or you’ve hit it big and need to move on to other investments, having explicit, well laid-out limits prevents you from losing returns or just losing more money.

8. Make the right choice. Investing is time-consuming, so before you jump in, take one good look at your overall investment plan. Hopefully, by then, you’ve been able to put together all the pieces of the puzzle and can see if the whole thing holds up and is worth pursuing. In case it isn’t, you can take solace in the fact that it’s easier drawing up a new plan than recouping thousands of dollars worth of losses in the stock market.

9. Aim high. So your mind is made up on an investment, right? Well then just go for it and stop over-thinking things. You’ve done all the thinking you needed to in the previous steps. As corny as it sounds, if you give everything you got, you’ll be a winner regardless of the monetary outcome. Even if you lost money, you won’t have lost that much because you’ve learned to hedge your bets. All you have to do is following through on your game plan and the long term benefits will follow.

10. Debrief. At set intervals, go over your plan. If a couple of missteps here and there cost you a lot of money, try to identify them and make sure that you don’t keep repeating them. Don’t give up: we learn more from our failures than from our successes. Hang in there, make small changes; keep what works and discard what doesn’t until you all your personal success ingredients come together and you carve out your very own formula for stock market riches.