A 20% loss requires a 25% gain on the smaller balance to break even. At 50% down, the required recovery is 100%.
Tools / Calculator
Drawdown Recovery Calculator
See why avoiding deep losses matters: recovery gains increase non-linearly as drawdown grows.
RECOVERY REQUIREMENT
Drawdown−20.0%
Gain needed to recover+25.0%
An account falling from $10,000 to $8,000 has lost 20%. Returning from $8,000 to $10,000 requires a 25% gain.