Drawdown Recovery Calculator
Enter a drawdown percentage to see the gain you need just to get back to breakeven. It's always more than the loss — and it grows fast.
Free tool · No sign-up · Updated July 2026
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To get back to breakeven
Estimates for planning only — verify against your broker. Nothing here is financial advice.
How the drawdown recovery calculator works
A loss and the gain needed to recover it are not the same size. Lose 50% and you don't need 50% back — you need 100%, because you're earning it on a smaller base. This asymmetry is the mathematical reason capital preservation beats swinging for the fences, and it's why small, controlled losses matter so much.
- After a drawdown, your remaining capital is (100% − drawdown) of where you started.
- To get back to your original balance you must grow that smaller amount back to 100%.
- The required gain climbs non-linearly: 10% needs 11%, 25% needs 33%, 50% needs 100%, and 75% needs a 300% gain.
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Learn the fundamentals
Go beyond the numbers. These free TradeOlogy Academy lessons cover the theory behind this calculator.
Risk Management Foundations
Keeping drawdowns shallow is the whole game — this lesson shows how the pros do it.
Read the lesson ↗ Academy lessonCommon Trading Mistakes
The behaviours — revenge trading, over-sizing — that turn a small drawdown into a deep one.
Read the lesson ↗ Academy lessonPosition Sizing Deep Dive
Fixed small risk per trade is the mechanism that caps how deep a losing streak can go.
Read the lesson ↗Related calculators
Drawdown Recovery Calculator — FAQ
Why does a 50% loss need a 100% gain to recover?
Because you're earning the recovery on a smaller base. Half your money doubling gets you back to the start: $100 → $50 → needs +100% → $100. The deeper the hole, the more disproportionate the climb, which is why deep drawdowns are so dangerous.
How do I avoid deep drawdowns?
Fixed, small per-trade risk (see the position size calculator) caps how far a losing streak can take you down. Keeping single-trade risk near 1% means even a rough patch stays in the shallow, easily-recoverable part of this curve.
What's a "normal" drawdown for a trader?
It varies by strategy, but many profitable traders experience peak-to-trough drawdowns of 10–20% at some point. The key isn't avoiding drawdowns entirely — it's keeping them shallow enough that a normal winning stretch recovers them.