Fear of drawdown: what does it do to your trading?

Fear of the drawdown is often worse than the drawdown itself: it shrinks position size to nothing, skips valid setups and locks in stagnation. The fear protects but also imprisons.

Fear of drawdown: what does it do to your trading? — drawdown and recovery diagram
An equity curve during a drawdown and its recovery

How do you manage it?

  • how drawdown fear shows up for you
  • the data that calms it
  • how you trade through the fear
Fear of drawdown: what does it do to your trading? — risk-reward diagram
A risk-reward ratio of 1 to 2

The drawdown guide gives the numbers that make drawdowns survivable.

Background: Drawdown and recovery: why a 50% loss needs a 100% gain

Losses and gains aren't symmetrical. See how much you need to recover from a drawdown, what losing streaks do at different risk levels and how to set limits.

How much do you need to gain to recover from a 50% loss?

100%. The gain needed is the loss divided by one minus the loss, so larger drawdowns need disproportionately larger gains.

What is maximum drawdown?

The largest fall in account value from a peak to a later low, before a new peak is reached, usually expressed as a percentage.

Read the full guide

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