A method of identifying pseudo-invariant instructions in computer program hot paths, comprising the steps of creating an intermediate representation of a hot path in a software buffer, executing instructions in the program image for the computer program until a hot path is detected, copying computer machine state and computer processor register contents to a context in memory, and using this context to compute an output a plurality of times for each instruction in the hot path using an interpreter that emulates the computer processor. Results of the interpreter computations are stored with the frequency count for each unique output in a table that is readable by a program optimizer. Frequency counts for each instruction are compared with a pseudo-invariant threshold to classify an instruction as pseudo-invariant.