Maximum Drawdown Calculator
Largest peak-to-trough decline of an investment

🔒 On-device · Method · · Disclaimer · Maximum Drawdown Calculator
Need a fast answer on largest peak-to-trough decline of an investment? Maximum Drawdown Calculator answers with the steps beside it. You supply Peak Value ($) and Trough Value ($) to Maximum Drawdown; the answer follows at once. Maximum Drawdown puts the headline number first. Use Maximum Drawdown for a reliable number, fast. You can disconnect once Maximum Drawdown has loaded; the arithmetic runs locally. Maximum Drawdown handles maximum drawdown calculator peak to trough decline portfolio risk the same way as free online maximum drawdown calculator — one of the Finance tools on CalcProMaster. Maximum Drawdown is designed for real people. Labels stay plain. Try Maximum Drawdown now and keep it handy.
What does the Maximum Drawdown Calculator do?
Maximum Drawdown Calculator works out the max drawdown from the Peak Value and Trough Value, using Finance conventions. With the defaults, maximum drawdown calculator gives a max drawdown of -25.0%.
- Inputs: Peak Value and Trough Value.
- Output: the max drawdown, with the working that produced it.
- Method: Finance conventions applied in sequence, with the max drawdown produced by local arithmetic.
Quick answer
maximum drawdown calculator returns a max drawdown of -25.0% with the default inputs (peak value of 100,000, trough value of 75,000).
How does the Maximum Drawdown Calculator work?
Maximum Drawdown Calculator computes the max drawdown directly from your inputs — the Peak Value and Trough Value feed the formula. All the work happens in your browser session and the max drawdown never leaves it.
How the Maximum Drawdown Calculator works
Feeding Peak Value and Trough Value into Maximum Drawdown Calculator produces the result along with a written record of every operation that got there.
How to use it
- Peak Value — one of the values maximum drawdown builds from; the figure reflects exactly what you type.
- Trough Value — used in the first maximum drawdown stage, so entering it accurately beats any later refinement.
- When the figure on maximum drawdown looks plausible but not quite right, check the units line first — a scale error shows up there before anywhere else.
- Nudge each Peak Value and Trough Value on the maximum drawdown page in turn and note how far the max drawdown moves; the ranking rarely matches intuition.
The formula behind the result
The order of operations on the maximum drawdown page is fixed by the Finance convention, which is why two runs with identical Peak Value and Trough Value cannot disagree.
Worked example: with peak value of 100,000, trough value of 75,000, this maximum drawdown calculation returns Max Drawdown: -25.0%. The same run reports Gain needed to recover: +33.3% — recovery always requires a larger percentage gain than the loss itself.
The steps it follows:
- Formula: Drawdown = (Trough − Peak) ÷ Peak × 100
- (75,000 − 100,000) ÷ 100,000 = -0.2500
- × 100 = -25.0%
- Recovery gain needed = Peak ÷ Trough − 1 = +33.3%
Understanding the result
Decimal places on maximum drawdown beyond the precision of your own Peak Value and Trough Value are display, not information.
Where it helps
Maximum Drawdown Calculator suits setting a working target, trying a rounded and an exact figure, and sanity-checking a number you were handed — the kind of question that arrives once a week and deserves a defensible number.
Common mistakes
Quoting the output without the Peak Value and Trough Value that produced it is the error that survives longest, because nobody downstream can check it.
Tip: Maximum Drawdown Calculator returns Max Drawdown: -25.0% at its defaults; double the Peak Value ($) and it returns Max Drawdown: -62.5%.
Assumptions and limitations
A result from Maximum Drawdown Calculator is arithmetic, not advice; where a contract, a clinician, or an authority sets a rule, that rule overrides the result.
Why use this calculator
Because the Finance convention is named on the page, Maximum Drawdown Calculator settles arguments about which method produced the output.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does maximum drawdown calculator work out?
The maximum drawdown form on this page is deliberately narrow — Peak Value and Trough Value in, a figure out, and a step log that makes the conversion auditable. Because nothing is stored server-side, there is no history to clear and no account to close after using Maximum Drawdown Calculator.
How is the max drawdown worked out on this page?
The first steps are formula: drawdown = (trough − peak) ÷ peak × 100, then (75,000 − 100,000) ÷ 100,000 = -0.2500. No step in Maximum Drawdown Calculator depends on a hidden default — the formula reads the Peak Value and Trough Value exactly as displayed, including zeros.
What has to be entered before Maximum Drawdown Calculator produces a result?
The maximum drawdown form needs Peak Value and Trough Value, and computes the max drawdown from them.
How much does the Peak Value ($) move the result?
At the defaults Maximum Drawdown Calculator returns Max Drawdown: -25.0%; doubling Peak Value ($) to 200,000 moves it to Max Drawdown: -62.5%.
What does the result from the Maximum Drawdown Calculator represent?
The main number the maximum drawdown calculator returns is the max drawdown for your exact inputs. Anything the maximum drawdown form does not ask for is outside the result — no allowance is made for inputs the page has no field for.
Where does the page fit in day-to-day work?
Typical moments for the maximum drawdown page: setting a working target, trying a rounded and an exact figure, and sanity-checking a number you were handed, or a quick check before a figure goes into a document. Compare the maximum drawdown answer with a hand calculation once; after that you will know which fields to watch in every later run.
Average Cost Basis Calculator and other Finance tools
Average Cost Basis Calculator · Free Cash Flow Calculator · Invoice Factoring Calculator · Safe Withdrawal Rate Calculator · Refinance Break-Even Calculator · Yield to Worst Calculator · Finance Guides