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Create AccountDrawdown Calculator
See how far an account has fallen from its peak, and what it takes to climb back.
Your Result
The calculation runs in your browser. Rates used for currency conversion are indicative — check your broker for the exact figure.
Drawdown and recovery are not the same number, and the gap widens fast. Losing 20% needs a 25% gain to get back. Losing 50% needs 100%. That asymmetry is the whole argument for keeping losses small, and it is far more persuasive as a figure than as advice.
The calculator also converts the recovery into trades, using your average winning trade as a percentage. Seeing that a 30% drawdown needs forty-three winning trades at 1% each tends to change how people size positions.
When to use it
- After a losing run, to understand what recovery actually requires.
- When setting a maximum drawdown rule for a strategy.
- Before a prop firm challenge, where the limit is usually 8% to 12%.
- When tempted to increase size to recover faster — the arithmetic argues against it.
The fall is measured against the peak; the recovery is measured against what is left.
Drawdown % = (Peak − Current) ÷ Peak
Recovery Gain = (Peak ÷ Current) − 1
Trades Needed = ln(Peak ÷ Current) ÷ ln(1 + Average Win %)- The two percentages differ because they use different bases. A 20% fall leaves 80%, and 20% of 80% is not 20% of 100%.
- Recovery is compounded, so each winning trade is worked out on the balance after the previous one.
- Raising risk to recover faster raises the drawdown risk at exactly the moment the account can least afford it.
An account peaked at $10,000 and now holds $8,000. The trader averages 1% per winning trade.
Working: $2,000 ÷ $10,000 = 20% down, but $10,000 ÷ $8,000 = 1.25, so a 25% gain is required. At 1% per win that is 23 consecutive winning trades — and losses along the way push it higher.
Why is the recovery gain bigger than the drawdown?
Because the two percentages are measured against different amounts. The fall is a share of the peak; the climb is a share of the smaller balance left behind. The bigger the fall, the wider the gap.
What counts as an acceptable drawdown?
That depends on the strategy, but past 20% the recovery arithmetic turns punishing. Prop firms usually fail an account somewhere between 8% and 12% for that reason.
Should I increase risk to recover faster?
It is the most common way a bad month becomes a blown account. Larger size accelerates the recovery only if you win, and deepens the hole if you do not — at the point where the account can least afford it.
Is this the same as maximum drawdown?
Not quite. Maximum drawdown is the largest peak-to-trough fall over a whole history. This measures the current one — how far below the high-water mark you are today.
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