Loss Recovery Calculator
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How deep does your strategy really fall?
Backtest your own strategy over years of data and see its real drawdowns.
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Recovery Path Visualization
Asymmetric Nature of Losses and Gains
Consecutive Wins Needed to Recover
| Loss % | 1% Win | 2% Win | 3% Win | 5% Win | 10% Win | 15% Win | 20% Win | 25% Win |
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| 95% |
This table shows the number of consecutive winning trades needed to recover from different percentage losses, based on various win percentages per trade.
Why a 50% Loss Needs a 100% Gain
Losses and gains are measured against different bases, which makes them asymmetric. Lose 50% of a $10,000 account and you hold $5,000 — getting back to $10,000 now requires doubling what's left. The required recovery gain for a loss of L (as a fraction) is:
required gain = L / (1 − L)
The curve is brutally convex: a 10% loss needs 11.1%, a 20% loss needs 25%, a 50% loss needs 100%, and a 90% loss needs 900%. This is the mathematical case for cutting losses early — every extra percent of drawdown costs disproportionately more to win back. The number of consecutive winning trades of w% each follows from the same equation: n = ln(1/(1−L)) / ln(1+w), rounded up.
Two companion questions matter just as much: how likely is the losing streak that causes such a drawdown in the first place — see the losing streak calculator — and what position size keeps a normal streak from becoming a deep hole, which is what the Kelly criterion calculator and the risk of ruin calculator quantify.