Drawdown Calculator

See how much you need to recover from any trading loss

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Starting Balance
Account Balance
$
Loss Amount
Loss Percentage
%
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Set a starting balance and loss amount to see the recovery percentage needed.

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Track drawdowns in real time across all your prop firm accounts. Get alerts before you breach.

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Drawdown Recovery Reference

Common loss percentages and the corresponding gain required to recover.

Loss %Recovery % Needed
5%5.3%
10%11.1%
15%17.6%
20%25.0%
25%33.3%
30%42.9%
40%66.7%
50%100.0%
60%150.0%
70%233.3%
80%400.0%
90%900.0%

Understanding Drawdown Recovery

Why recovery is asymmetric. Losses and gains are not symmetrical. If you lose 50% of your account, you need a 100% gain just to get back to where you started — not 50%. This is because the gain is calculated on a smaller base. The larger the loss, the more disproportionately large the recovery needs to be. A 90% loss requires a 900% gain. This mathematical reality is why capital preservation is the most important skill in trading.

Prop firm implications. Most prop firms set maximum drawdown limits between 4% and 10% of the account balance. Once you breach that threshold, the account is terminated — there is no recovery. This makes risk management even more critical than in personal trading. Every loss chips away at a finite allowance that does not reset. Understanding exactly how much room you have left, and how hard it is to recover what you have already lost, is essential for staying funded.

Small, consistent risk management. The numbers make the case clearly: keeping losses small is far easier than recovering from large ones. Risking 1-2% of your drawdown allowance per trade means a string of losses is survivable. Risking 10% per trade means just a few bad trades can put you in a hole that is nearly impossible to climb out of. Use this calculator to see for yourself — simulate consecutive losses at different risk levels and notice how quickly the recovery percentage spirals out of reach.

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