Depth of the hole sets the timeline
Recovery isn’t just about the gain needed — it’s the calendar time your capital sits underwater, unable to compound elsewhere. This tool turns a drawdown into a realistic recovery horizon. Cap the damage up front with the max drawdown calculator.
How long the climb back takes
A drawdown has two costs: the depth, which everyone measures, and the time to recover, which nobody does until they're living in it. At a steady 5% monthly return, recovering a −30% drawdown takes about 7.3 months — the +43% gain needed doesn't come back at the same speed the −30% left.
The compounding math: months to recover = log(1 ÷ (1 − dd)) ÷ log(1 + monthly return). It grows brutally with depth — the same 5% monthly grind recovers a −50% hole in 14 months and a −70% hole in 25. Two years of perfect, disciplined trading to stand where you once stood.
This number is the strongest argument for shallow-drawdown strategies: a system making 3% monthly with 15% max drawdowns beats one making 6% with 50% drawdowns on any horizon that includes recovering, because the deep-drawdown system spends most of its life climbing out of holes rather than compounding new highs.