Drawdown Recovery Calculator
Enter your drawdown to see the gain required to reclaim the peak — and why a 50% loss demands a +100% comeback. Losses and recoveries are not symmetric, and this page shows exactly how lopsided the math gets.
One loss, one account
Peak-to-trough loss, from 0.01% through 99.99%.
Account value at its high-water mark — sets the dollar figures in the result.
A 20% drawdown leaves $0.80 of every dollar — from $10,000.00 down to $8,000.00, you need a +25.00% run just to see the peak again.
- Left of each dollar
- $0.80
- Account after drawdown
- $8,000.00
- Dollars to win back
- $2,000.00
- Recovery needed
- +25.00%
| Loss | Remaining per dollar | Gain to break even |
|---|---|---|
| 10% | $0.90 | +11.11% |
| 20% | $0.80 | +25.00% |
| 30% | $0.70 | +42.86% |
| 40% | $0.60 | +66.67% |
| 50% | $0.50 | +100.00% |
| 75% | $0.25 | +300.00% |
| 90% | $0.10 | +900.00% |
How recovery percent is calculated
This calculator uses the recovery arithmetic every risk book opens with. A drawdown removes a slice of your capital, and any rebound is earned on what remains — a smaller base. Losing a fraction d of the account leaves 1 − d, so the gain required to reclaim the peak is d ÷ (1 − d): always larger than the loss itself, and growing explosively as the hole deepens. A −10% drawdown needs about +11%, −50% needs +100%, and −90% needs +900%. That asymmetry is the reason position-sizing rules exist — capping risk at 1% or 2% per trade with the position size calculator keeps every individual loss in the shallow zone where recovery is still cheap.
Recovery % = Drawdown ÷ (1 − Drawdown)- Drawdown
- Peak-to-trough loss, as a fraction of the peak
- 1 − Drawdown
- Capital left after the loss — the base for a rebound
- Recovery %
- Gain on the remaining equity to reach the old peak
Why −20% needs +25% and −90% needs +900%
Start with $10,000 at the peak and lose 20%: $8,000 remains. Winning back the missing $2,000 on an $8,000 base takes a gain of 2,000 ÷ 8,000 — exactly +25%, a full five points more than the fall. Cut the account in half instead and the arithmetic turns brutal: a 50% drawdown leaves $5,000, and only a double — +100% — gets back to even. At a 90% drawdown, $1,000 remains and the old peak is a +900% run away.
This is an educational calculation based only on the values you provide. It says nothing about how long a recovery takes, and it is not trading advice.
What this calculator assumes
- Pure arithmetic on peak and trough values — taxes, fees, commissions, and slippage are not modeled and would raise the real recovery bar.
- No time dimension: how long recovery takes depends on the returns you actually earn, which this calculator does not model.
- No deposits or withdrawals — recovery is assumed to come from returns alone, not fresh capital.
- This is an educational aid, not trading or investment advice.
Drawdown recovery FAQ
Why is the recovery bigger than the loss?
Because the rebound is earned on a smaller base. A 25% loss on $10,000 removes $2,500, but the comeback must be earned on the $7,500 that remains — and $2,500 is a third of $7,500, so the required gain is +33.33%, not 25%. The deeper the loss, the smaller the base and the wider the gap between the two numbers.
What drawdown ends most trading accounts?
There is no single fatal number, but deep drawdowns tend to finish accounts indirectly. Once the required recovery passes roughly +100% — a 50% drawdown — many traders abandon the risk discipline that could still save them and size up to get even faster. Those oversized bets deepen the hole, which demands even bigger bets. That spiral, not the original loss, is what usually ends the account — and it is exactly why professionals cap the risk on every single trade.
How do I limit drawdowns?
Three habits do most of the work: size every position so a stopped-out trade costs a fixed small fraction of the account (see the position size calculator), cap total portfolio heat — the sum of all open risk — so correlated losers cannot stack into a deep hole, and honor stop-losses instead of widening them. None of these prevent losses; they keep each one shallow enough that the recovery math stays friendly.
Sources and review notes
- U.S. SEC Investor.gov — What is risk? Investing basics
- Jack Schwager, Market Wizards — risk chapters
Methodology last checked Jul 16, 2026. Formula implementation is covered by deterministic unit tests. No financial professional review is claimed yet.