How is drawdown calculated?

Drawdown equals the difference between the peak value and the current or trough value divided by the peak value.

Why is the recovery percentage larger than the drawdown?

The recovery starts from a smaller capital base. A 20% loss leaves 80% of the peak, so returning from 80 to 100 requires a 25% gain; a 50% loss requires a 100% gain and an 80% loss requires a 400% gain.

What is maximum drawdown?

Maximum drawdown is the largest observed peak-to-trough decline over a period. In equity-curve mode the calculator finds it automatically from your pasted series and reports the underwater period and the recovery time.

What does the equity-curve input accept?

Paste values only (one per line or comma-separated) or date,value pairs such as 2024-01-05, 100500. The calculator detects the maximum drawdown and measures how long each drawdown took to recover; dates in YYYY-MM-DD format enable day-based durations.

DRAWDOWN • RECOVERY • EQUITY CURVE

Drawdown & Recovery Calculator

Measure how far capital has fallen from a peak, the gain required to recover, how long recovery takes, and analyze an equity curve for automatic max drawdown, underwater periods and recovery time.

Drawdown inputs

Manual peak/current mode, or paste an equity curve for automatic analysis.

LIVE

Drawdown— Recovery—

Peak equity / portfolio value

Current or trough value

Maximum drawdown limit

Modeled return per period

Risk per losing trade

Consecutive losses

Core formulasDrawdown = (Peak − Current) ÷ Peak. Recovery required = Peak ÷ Current − 1.

Current drawdown—

Capital lost—

Recovery gain required—

Risk budget remaining—

Current value vs peak—

Value at drawdown limit—

Gain above selected peak—

Periods to recover—

Drawdown after losing streak—

Equity after losing streak—

What this means

Drawdown & recovery ladder

The percentage gain needed to recover grows faster than the percentage loss.

Equity curve analysis

Automatic peak-to-trough analysis of the pasted series.

—

Max drawdown (auto)—

Peak—

Trough—

Underwater period—

Recovery time—

Drawdown episodes—

Peak	Trough	Recovered	Max drawdown	Underwater	Recovery time

Drawdown recovery table

Recovery ladder table across drawdown thresholds.

Drawdown	Value after loss	Gain required to recover

Recovery required table

The deeper the drawdown, the larger the gain needed just to get back to the old peak. Bars are scaled to the +400% recovery.

−10%

+11.11%

−20%

+25%

−50%

+100%

−80%

+400%

Recovery required = 1 ÷ (1 − drawdown) − 1. The deeper the loss, the exponentially larger the gain needed to break even.

DECISION SUPPORT

Turn drawdown into a recovery and risk plan

Two inputs are supported. Manual mode measures a selected peak and current value, adds an assumed return per period to estimate the number of periods needed to recover, and stress-tests a sequence of equal percentage losses. Equity-curve mode pastes a series of portfolio values (with optional dates) and automatically finds every peak-to-trough decline, the maximum drawdown, the underwater period and the time each drawdown took to recover.

1. Measure

Drawdown = (Peak − Current) ÷ Peak. In equity-curve mode the peak is the highest value reached before the decline; the calculator finds it automatically from your series.

2. Plan recovery

Recovery required = Peak ÷ Current − 1. Periods = ln(Peak ÷ Current) ÷ ln(1 + return per period). These are mathematical requirements, not forecasts.

3. Analyze the equity curve

Paste date,value pairs (or values only). The tool computes the maximum drawdown, the underwater period and the recovery time of every drawdown episode, and flags episodes that have not recovered yet.

4. Stress-test risk

Ending equity = Peak × (1 − risk per loss)^losses. Compare the modeled streak with your drawdown limit before choosing position risk.

Method reviewed August 24, 2026.

Important:Drawdown measures decline from a previous peak, not the probability of another loss. Recovery percentages and periods are mathematical requirements, not forecasts. Equity-curve analysis reflects only the values you paste: each row is one period, and drawdowns that never recover are measured to the last data point.