A 20% hole is not a 20% climb. Enter the drawdown — or peak and trough — and see the percent you need to get back to even, plus optional time at a given return.
A −20% hole needs +25% just to get back to the prior peak — not another 20%. At 5% per month, that is about 4.6 months of compounding with no further losses.
Mantis builds the equity curve from your trade log and tracks max drawdown and recovery factor — so the hole and the climb are numbers, not a feeling.
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The max drawdown formula is (trough − peak) / peak. It is the worst drop on the equity curve, not your worst single trade. A peak of $10,400 and a trough of $8,840 is −15%. A bounce that does not make a new high does not erase that print.
Required gain = drawdown ÷ (1 − |drawdown|). Lose 20% of $10,000 and you sit at $8,000. Getting back to $10,000 is a $2,000 gain on an $8,000 base — +25%, not +20%. A 50% hole needs +100%.
If you assume a constant return per month or year, periods = ln(1 + required gain) ÷ ln(1 + period return). The default 20% drawdown at 5% per month is about 4.6 months of compounding with no further losses. Clear the expected-return field if you only want the percent.
Leave Measure on “Drawdown %”, 20% down, 5% per month. Output: +25% to recover, ~4.6 months. Switch to Peak & trough with $10,400 / $8,840 and you get the −15% / +17.6% pair from the max drawdown glossary.
Drawdown is not a field you type on one fill. It is a statistic on the equity curve. Log every trade with size and P/L so the curve is honest, then read max drawdown next to recovery factor. A hole you cannot name is a hole you will repeat.
If a 25% climb is longer than you will actually wait, the risk per trade is too high. Mantis tracks the curve; the how-to spoke shows where: how to track max drawdown in a trading journal.
Max drawdown is the worst peak-to-trough drop on the equity curve: (trough − peak) / peak, as a percentage. A peak of $10,400 and a trough of $8,840 is −15%. The later bounce does not shrink that print; a new max is only set by a deeper trough from a later peak.
Required gain = drawdown ÷ (1 − |drawdown|). A 10% hole needs about +11.1% back; a 20% hole needs +25%; a 50% hole needs +100%. The gain is always larger than the drop because you are compounding up from a smaller base.
If you assume a constant return per period, periods = ln(1 + required gain) ÷ ln(1 + period return). A 20% drawdown that needs +25%, at 5% per month, takes about 4.6 months of compounding with no further losses. Real paths are not that smooth — treat the number as a lower bound.
It depends on the strategy and on whether you can sit through it. Conservative books often try to keep max drawdown under about 20%. The recovery maths is the part most people skip: 20% down is 25% back to even, not 20%. If that climb is longer than your patience, the drawdown is too large for you, regardless of what a textbook calls 'normal'.
Yes. It runs in your browser, needs no sign-up, and does not send the numbers you type to a server. Mantis, our iOS trading journal, builds the equity curve from the trade log and tracks max drawdown and recovery factor automatically.
Important: Mantis is a trading journal and analytics tool. This calculator is for educational purposes and is not investment advice, not financial advice, and not a recommendation to buy or sell any security or instrument. Trading involves risk; past performance does not guarantee future results. Consult a qualified professional before making financial decisions.