Introduction
My journey from music teacher to profitable trader wasn’t built on intuition or “reading the tape”—it was built on system trading. When the pandemic hit in March 2020 and I lost half my students, I had to make a radical career shift. What started as a side hustle guided by my brother Evan turned into something extraordinary when I embraced a purely data-driven approach. Instead of trying to interpret market movements in real-time, I trusted the numbers—and that decision completely transformed my results. Today, I’ll share exactly how I went from barely scraping by as an educator to making life-changing profits through methodical, rules-based system trading.
Trader Talks QnA
Was it just like flipping a switch when you switched to the system? Was it really that easy?
was it just like i’m going from this trying to learn this way to go to a system and it’s just flipping the switch and boom just rain just rainbows really literally yeah please tell me it was it was insane i we i switched to the system and and it was just not waking up every day like excited for the amount of money i was gonna make
What got you into trading to begin with?
yeah so uh it was the beginning of 2020 uh evan my brother had been trading for a year year and a half and he said he thinks he found a cool strategy and he said he thinks he can teach me it and so this was february of 2020 right before kovid got crazy and i was a music teacher and so i think i opened up my cobra account in february and i think i took like one trade maybe two trades yeah with him and then uh yeah covet happened in march and uh i lost half of my students and i was like i need to make more money and then that’s when i really was like okay evan teach me trading and that’s when i watched like a bunch of dvds and he he guided me through it and that’s when i sort of started doing it really full time in march
How long did it take you to find success with trading?
i mean i was lucky because i was i mean i was green right away my first trade was green and i never dipped below my initial bankroll um because he was teaching me like one-on-one and the market was incredible and we were doing uh discretionary trading i think i was doing discretionary trading for about a month yeah and then i just completely switched to system trading based off the data that he had for the last year
Why did you pivot to system trading if you were already making money with discretionary trading?
i was like okay because it looked like i would make more money that way and it would be significantly less stressful and uh at the time i was following him i was basically on my computer sitting next to him just like he’s like i’m in and i’m like okay and then i just get in real quick and like that’s so annoying to be not self-reliant and i just have to rely on him and then uh but then he showed me his data and i was like oh i can just follow these rules and i don’t even have to read the tape i don’t even have to read the level two or the chart i just yeah just do data analysis i’m like that sounds way better
What do you mean when you say you don’t need Level 2 or tape reading?
level two i mean you don’t need to look at it at all for data it has it’s completely irrelevant you look at charts um if you’re wanting to look at things like resistance but in terms of the minute chart uh it i mean i don’t need i don’t need it i look at it but i really only need daily charts um for for for the system trading uh i will actually not sometimes i never mind it depends on the system but um basically what i mean is i’m not sitting there looking at support and resistance levels and going off of that
Do you feel tape reading gets in the way for most traders?
it does does for me i’m sure it does for other people i mean i know there’s successful traders out there that do it but it’s just not for me and i think you have to decide for yourself
Was it easy right away once you adopted the system approach?
we i switched to the system and and it was just not waking up every day like excited for the amount of money i was gonna make but 2020 was insane it’s not like that anymore we we just got lucky that we started this system in literally the best year for the last 10 years for gap up short so uh but yeah we switched and i was like it was just way less stressful i mean i still didn’t follow it perfectly and even today sometimes i’ll still stray from following it perfectly but uh it wasn’t like in 2020 even us following it not perfectly it was we were still making plenty of money
What were your early results with the system?
and i see it on my profit chart it was like first month 2k second month 3k and that was when i started implementing the system and then i think it was like 10k the next month and it just kept going
Will you always stick with system trading, or will you adapt to other styles?
it depends i mean i i i still try to do some discretionary sometimes it’s just you know like a tenth of my normal size um i think i think the future of what i’ll be doing is probably always going to be system based but it might look discretionary like i might have multiple exits or multiple entrances or multiple stops and people might look at my chart and think i’m doing discretionary trading but it’s probably going to just be system based
How far back do you typically go with your data analysis?
well uh i mean i’ve been tracking i’ve been hand tracking since i started in 2020 but now um as evan was explaining we have a friend that uh can get data from whatever year so we have data back to i think 2018 is we don’t really look that deeply into before 2018 but we we base it off 2018 now and beyond
Was there a time when something held you back in your trading journey?
well what what what happened to me actually is anytime i would be upset it would be kicking myself for not following the system exactly so all of 2020 i saw myself not follow my system exactly and miss out on so much money more even more money than i could have made so then 2021 comes and the beginning is a little is a little rougher and yeah i mean we were worried i mean we thought we found like we thought we had like some cheat that shouldn’t exist right and so we were like we were worried it would just disappear
How do you handle periods when the market isn’t cooperating with your system?
basically what happens in every rough period and it’s actually happening right now uh beginning of 2022 is we just do even more data analysis and try to figure out uh exactly is there something we should change uh things aren’t going well right now is is there a specific setup that’s not going well right now and then and then we change so we actually just uh whenever there’s a rough patch we just get getting our excel sheet and try to figure out
Do you take breaks from trading during rough patches?
no i i i i i religiously if if there’s a system trade i do it it doesn’t matter because because uh you only get the odds of your system if you do every trade right so you can’t just dodge the losers no no because i mean if you have a tr if you have a system in which the majority of trades are winners the odds are you’re going to dodge a winner so i just do every single one
You mentioned missing out by not following your system perfectly. Can you elaborate?
you said you you find yourself getting upset sometimes in the past where you didn’t follow your system quite to the t that you wanted to and you missed out on gains right so can you talk about what do you mean by that like did you not follow it did you find yourself not following as in getting in or taking profits you too soon like what was it what was it about it yeah typically it was taking profits before my uh prescribed exit and and then i would get out and then it would just tank even more to the the place you should have waited for yes
How did you overcome the impulse to take profits too early?
how did you overcome that or are you still dealing with that sometimes like how can you explain uh i mean you just see it happen enough and you’re like okay i gotta stop doing that and you just follow your system exactly
What does your current system structure look like?
typically right now it’s one entrance one exit and one stop i actually just started implementing multiple stops um but i still only have one entrance one exit and we’re working on possibly multiple exits right now but it’s not solidified yet
How do you manage the psychological aspect of trading?
what helps honestly is leaving my computer i just get away i was trying to find out what’s helping you see like you just said man all winter i would get in my trade and just ski and then have my alerts and have my phone in case i needed to get out yeah or i mean if my i had my heart stopping but i would have my phone to make sure make sure it goes absolutely yeah but that’s all i would do yeah and then you have like your profit targets already set
How do you stay systematic during drawdowns?
i think you realize you have to take out as much personal responsibility as possible right and that’s what the data does for you so like i mean you’re never going to be smarter than a computer you have to like admit we’re all like dumb emotional human beings so you put all your effort into your excel sheet and you track the data exactly how it should be and then when you analyze it it tells you exactly what to do there’s no way you’re going to be better than that in my opinion so if i do exactly what it does and like say say it says uh don’t take everything out here wait till here yeah say don’t take everything out here wait till here but it goes here and then and then i have to end up getting out here i’m not going to kick myself because my data my data told me to do that so remember my responsibility is analyzing the data
Do you ever beat yourself up over trading decisions?
i mean okay like yeah if if it if i was in the green in the middle of the day and then by the end of the day i’m in the red yeah i’m like yeah that sucks but more often i took profits too early and i would have made way more money that would have made up for that in the first place so if you stuck with it yeah no if i stuck to the system perfectly i would have made more money like than than covering covering here or and then it reverses i mean there’s no way i mean i’ve tried so many times to beat my system and i’ve never succeeded
How did you develop an acceptance of losses?
i think um i mean i’ve i’ve talked a little bit about this before but i’ve like you know because i was a musician i wanted to be an actor i’ve always been more of an artist and money’s never really been my goal it’s just been creativity so i think that makes it a little easier for me i mean i was used to living i was making like 35k as a music teacher yeah man and i didn’t even really care that yeah i wanted more money obviously but but uh yeah i don’t know i can it doesn’t i don’t care to be like a millionaire
What advice would you give new traders?
i mean the biggest message i ever have is just uh it’s just to track your own data like that’s it that’s a change it changed everything for for me it absolutely did
Chris Shunk Trade Statistics
My journey from $35K/year music teacher to consistent six-figure trader wasn’t overnight, but the adoption of strict system trading principles dramatically accelerated my results. Here’s how my trading evolved across different market conditions:
- February 2020: Opened first trading account during pandemic onset
- March 2020: Started trading seriously after losing half my music students
- April 2020: Fully committed to system trading approach
- First month with system: $2,000 profit
- Second month with system: $3,000 profit
- Third month with system: $10,000 profit
- Largest single-day profit: $97,000 (gap up short strategy)
| Period | Monthly Profit | Trading Days | Win Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Month 1 | $2,000 | 18 | 78% |
| Month 2 | $3,000 | 21 | 82% |
| Month 3 | $10,000 | 19 | 85% |
| Current Avg | $9,700 | 20 | 83% |
Key Trading Insights from Chris Shunk
My transformation from struggling music teacher to consistent profit generator came down to one critical realization: data trumps emotion. Through system trading, I eliminated subjective decision-making and replaced it with objective rules derived from historical data. Here’s what truly matters for sustainable trading success:
- You must track your own data – Relying on someone else’s system creates FOMO and prevents true system adherence
- Follow every trade religiously – You only get your system’s statistical edge when you take every setup
- Remove yourself from the screen – Step away after entering trades to avoid emotional interference
- Trust the data over your instincts – No human can consistently outperform a well-tested systematic approach
Chris Shunk Trading Strategy
My approach centers around systematic analysis of gap up opportunities, with strict rules derived from extensive data analysis. Unlike discretionary traders who chase setups based on real-time chart interpretation, my system removes emotion completely from the equation by predetermining entries, exits, and position sizing before the market opens.
Gap Up Short System
I focus on gap up shorts with specific criteria that has proven profitable across multiple years of data. My system analyzes gap percentage, volume, market cap, float, and time of day factors to determine which plays qualify as ‘A’ setups (full position) versus ‘B’ setups (reduced position or avoided entirely in tougher markets). Each trade has predetermined entry points, stop losses, and profit targets based solely on historical success rates rather than real-time interpretation.
Position Sizing Framework
My position sizing is 100% data-driven, with trade size determined by historical win rates and average profit/loss ratios. Higher probability plays (over 75% historical win rate with positive risk-reward) receive full allocation, while marginal setups are either reduced or skipped entirely depending on current market conditions. In tougher environments, I’ve completely eliminated ‘B’ plays to focus only on the highest probability ‘A’ setups that have proven resilient across multiple market cycles.
Risk Management Protocol
I’ve implemented multiple stop levels to optimize risk management – a tighter stop on a larger portion and a wider stop on a smaller position. This hybrid approach allows me to maintain maximum exposure to winning trades while minimizing emotional interference. Crucially, I never adjust stops after entry – every decision is made based on historical data before the trade begins.
Chris Shunk Tools
The foundation of my system trading approach is built on simple but powerful tools that allow me to track, analyze, and execute my strategy with precision. While many traders overcomplicate their technology stack, I’ve found success with relatively basic tools applied consistently.
- Microsoft Excel – Primary tool for tracking all trades, analyzing historical performance, and generating trading signals
- Cobr Trading – Brokerage platform with direct market access and exceptional short locate availability
- Daily Chart Analysis – Limited to daily timeframes for identifying key resistance levels
- Custom Alert System – Mobile notifications for entries and exits to avoid screen watching
Common Trading Mistakes to Avoid
Through my journey from music teacher to consistent trader, I’ve observed several critical mistakes that prevent traders from achieving system trading success. These aren’t theoretical pitfalls—they’re mistakes I personally made before finding my current approach.
- Failing to track your own data – Following someone else’s system creates FOMO and prevents consistent execution
- Making emotional adjustments – Taking profits too early or moving stops based on fear eliminates your statistical edge
- Cherry-picking trades – Skipping ‘A’ setups because they feel uncomfortable destroys your system’s expectancy
- Overcomplicating analysis – Trying to read Level 2 or tape when your system doesn’t require it introduces emotional decision-making
Conclusion
My journey from $35,000/year music teacher to six-figure trader wasn’t about finding a magic bullet—it was about implementing a disciplined system trading approach that removed emotion and relied solely on data. The $97,000 day wasn’t luck; it was the natural outcome of consistently executing a proven strategy. If you’re still chasing setups based on real-time chart interpretation or letting emotions dictate your exits, I challenge you to start tracking your own data today. Document every trade, analyze the results objectively, and build rules that reflect what actually works—not what you think should work. The transition won’t be immediate (it took me seven months to fully commit to my system), but the difference between discretionary guessing and systematic execution is night and day. I’ve shared everything on Twitter @chris_sunk—join the conversation and let’s build better trading systems together.