Drawdown Recovery Calculator
Losses and gains aren't symmetric. Set how far you've fallen below your peak and see the exact percentage gain you need to climb back to break-even.
How far below your peak you are.
A 20% loss needs a 25.0% gain to get back to break-even.
For educational purposes only. Read our risk warning before trading.
Why Recovery Outpaces the Loss
A drawdown shrinks the capital you have left to grow from. A 20% loss leaves you with 80% of your peak, so you must grow that smaller base back to 100% — and the gain needed is always larger than the loss that caused it. The deeper the hole, the steeper the climb.
Loss vs. Gain Needed to Recover
| Drawdown (loss) | Gain needed to recover |
|---|---|
| 5% | 5.3% |
| 10% | 11.1% |
| 20% | 25% |
| 25% | 33.3% |
| 30% | 42.9% |
| 40% | 66.7% |
| 50% | 100% |
| 75% | 300% |
| 90% | 900% |
Frequently Asked Questions
Because the gain is measured against a smaller base. A 50% loss halves your capital, so you must double what's left — a 100% gain — just to return to where you started. The percentages only match for tiny moves; they diverge fast as the loss grows.
The required recovery accelerates non-linearly. A 25% loss needs a 33% gain, but a 75% loss needs a 300% gain — quadrupling your remaining capital. This is exactly why capital preservation and tight drawdown control matter more than chasing oversized wins.
Risk a small, fixed fraction of your account per trade, use a stop-loss on every position, and avoid recovery tactics like martingale or all-in compounding — doubling down after a loss can deepen a drawdown into one that's mathematically very hard to climb out of. Smaller, capped losses keep the required recovery within reach.
Not quite. ROI is your total return over a period. This tool isolates one piece of it: the return needed purely to undo a drawdown and get back to break-even. Any gain beyond that figure is the point where you start making real, new profit.
More Calculators for Your Trading
Free, instant, and browser-based — keep planning the rest of your trade with these.
Related Reading
Go deeper on the market behind these numbers — strategy, risk and setup guides from our desks.
Put These Numbers to Work
You've run the math — now trade it. Take signals you can act on the moment they fire: in Telegram, your browser, MT5, or live on the site.
Keep your broker. Keep your edge.
No switching accounts, no relearning a platform. Whichever Forex broker you already trust, SignalBots plugs straight in with extensions, robots, connectors and live signals tuned to it.
HFM
IC Markets
XM
LiteFinance
Exness
8Cap
FXGlory
FP Markets
BlackBull Markets
FXTM
