// Free tool
Drawdown calculator
See what a losing streak does to your account: the balance left, the drawdown in money and percent, and the gain you need to get back. Prop firm mode shows on which losing trade your daily and max loss limits break.
In your account currency.
Risk per trade as
Of the current balance, so each loss is a little smaller.
After 10 losing trades
- Balance left
- 90,438.21
- Drawdown in money
- 9,561.79
- Drawdown in percent
- 9.56%
- Gain needed to recoverMeasured on the balance that is left.
- 10.57%
Prop firm mode
Enter your firm's loss limits. The losing streak starts from the starting balance above, at the start of a trading day, with the same risk per trade.
The initial balance the firm's rules refer to.
Daily limit measured from
Of the account size.
Max loss type
Where the limits break
- Daily loss floor
- 95,000
- Daily limit breaks on
- Losing trade 6
- Max loss floor
- 90,000
- Max limit breaks onAssumes the losses keep coming, ignoring the daily reset.
- Losing trade 11
How the numbers work
With a fixed amount, every loss takes the same money. Balance after n losses = balance - n x risk.
With a percent of balance, each loss is a percent of what is left, so losses shrink as the account shrinks. Balance after n losses = balance x (1 - risk)^n. Ten losses at 1% leave 90.44% of the account, not 90%.
Drawdown is the drop from the balance you entered, in money and as a percent of it. The gain needed to recover is measured on what is left: drawdown / (100% - drawdown).
Why recovery is harder than the loss
The deeper the drawdown, the faster the climb back grows.
| Drawdown | Gain needed to recover |
|---|---|
| 5% | 5.3% |
| 10% | 11.1% |
| 20% | 25.0% |
| 30% | 42.9% |
| 40% | 66.7% |
| 50% | 100.0% |
| 75% | 300.0% |
That is why sizing matters more than any single entry. Trading is risk management: get it right and a mediocre strategy will keep you in the game. Get it wrong and a good strategy will still take you out.
Prop firm loss limits, explained
Daily loss limit
A cap on how much you can lose in one day. Some firms measure it from your initial account size, others from your balance at the start of the day. The calculator does both.
Max loss, static
A fixed floor at your initial size minus the max loss. It never moves.
Max loss, trailing
The floor follows your highest closed balance and stays the max loss amount below it. Many firms stop trailing once the floor reaches the initial size. The checkbox covers both.
What the calculator assumes
Every loss is a full stop-out at your chosen risk, and the streak starts at the beginning of a trading day. The max loss count ignores the daily reset, so it shows how many losses in a row, across days, the account can take. Firms word their rules differently, and some count open losses against the limits too. Check your firm's rules before you rely on a number.
Questions
- Is drawdown measured from the starting balance or from the peak?
- This calculator measures the streak from the balance you enter. Maximum drawdown in general runs from the highest point of the account to the lowest point after it, so enter your peak balance to get a peak-to-trough figure.
- Why does percent risk never reach zero?
- Each loss takes a percent of what is left, so the balance keeps shrinking but never hits zero. In practice the smallest trade size your broker allows stops you long before that.
- How much risk per trade can I take before a prop firm limit breaks?
- Enter your firm's limits in prop firm mode and change the risk per trade until the losing streak you want to survive fits. To turn a risk into a trade size, use the position size calculator.
- How do I test my risk per trade before a challenge?
- Backtest your strategy in ChartLabs. The Prop Firms scorer re-scales your backtested trades at different risk levels to show which challenges your trading would pass, and how sizing changes that.
Test your sizing on real charts before a challenge
ChartLabs replays historical charts bar by bar so you can trade your strategy by hand, then scores your backtested trades against prop firm rules at different risk levels.