Drawdown & recovery math calculator

What a loss actually costs to undo.

Interactive: drawdown & recovery mathEasy

Losses and gains are not symmetric, and the asymmetry gets worse fast. This is the arithmetic behind every risk-management rule.

Gain needed to recover
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Years to get back
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Capital remaining
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If the drawdown doubles
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Recovery gain = d/(1−d): −30% needs +42.9%, −50% needs +100%, −80% needs +400%. Avoiding the deep hole is worth more than catching the sharp rally.

The idea behind it

This calculator belongs to Cash Equities, where the mechanism it computes is explained step by step, with the formula, what each input means and where the simple model stops being right. Everything is computed in your browser; nothing you type is sent anywhere.

Instruments it applies to

  • Preferred Stock — A hybrid between a bond and a share: fixed dividends, priority over common stock, usually no vote.
  • Exchange-Traded Fund — A whole portfolio wrapped into one share that trades all day — the cheapest way to buy a market.
  • ADR / GDR — A foreign share repackaged to trade on your home exchange, in your currency.
  • REIT — Own a slice of office towers, warehouses or data centres through a share that pays out most of its rent.
  • Mutual Fund — The original pooled investment: professional management, one price per day, bought at NAV.
  • Closed-End Fund — A fund with a fixed share count — so the fund itself trades above or below what it owns, and the gap is the whole game.
  • SPAC — A listed pile of cash hunting for a company to become — with a money-back guarantee for the patient and a lottery ticket for the hopeful.
  • Exchange-Traded Note — Tracks an index like an ETF, but it is a bank's promise rather than a pot of assets — and the difference only shows up on the day the bank fails.

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Information and education only. Every page, figure and calculator on this site exists to explain how financial instruments work. Nothing here is investment, tax or legal advice, a recommendation, or a valuation you can rely on. Full disclaimer