Investing can be a lot like a game of baseball. There are moments of incredible excitement, often interspersed between many calm, even boring moments.

Over an investment lifetime, a trader can amass a great highlight reel of their best trades. But, while baseball fans see it this way, professional players actually out there on the field see it differently. For them, it’s their job.

And as such, most players have a process that they follow to ensure their success. Investors would be wise to learn to think the same way. By turning a series of seemingly-unrelated trades and investments into part of a broader process, you can make mistakes, but learn how to minimize them in the future, and set yourself up for the trades that have the best prospect of making you money. Let’s look at each in turn.