Losses hurt more than they look. This calculator shows the exact percentage gain you need to fully recover from a drawdown, so you understand why protecting capital matters.
Works with any broker and platform, including MetaTrader 4 (MT4), MetaTrader 5 (MT5), cTrader, NinjaTrader, TradingView, DXtrade and Match-Trader.
A loss and the gain needed to recover it are not equal. Lose 10 percent and you need 11.1 percent to get back to even. Lose 50 percent and you need a 100 percent gain. Lose 90 percent and you need 900 percent. This is why professional traders and prop firms focus so heavily on limiting drawdown.
Recovery gain percent equals (1 divided by (1 minus the loss percent), minus 1), times 100. Keeping losses small keeps the recovery within reach, which is the whole point of strict risk management.
| 10% loss | needs 11.1% gain |
| 20% loss | needs 25% gain |
| 50% loss | needs 100% gain |
| 75% loss | needs 300% gain |
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Start free trialYou need a 100 percent gain to recover from a 50 percent loss. If a $10,000 account falls to $5,000, it must double to get back to $10,000.
Because gains and losses are asymmetric. A loss reduces your capital base, so the gain required to recover is always larger than the loss itself, and it grows sharply as losses get bigger.
Risk a small fixed percentage per trade, use stop losses, and avoid over-leveraging. Keeping single losses small keeps your worst-case drawdown shallow and recoverable.
Find the exact lot size for your risk on any trade.
See what each pip is worth in your account currency.
Calculate the profit or loss of a trade before you take it.
Work out the margin required to open a position.
