Kansas City, MO
The cruelest math in investing: losses and gains are not symmetric.
Lose 50% and a 50% gain doesn't save you. You need 100%. See it for yourself.
| Your loss (%) How far you're down from your entry |
|
| Original investment ($) (optional) |
| Gain Needed to Break Even | — |
|---|---|
| What You Have Left | — |
| Dollars to Recover | — |
| If You Lose | You Need This Gain to Recover |
|---|---|
| 10% | +11.1% |
| 20% | +25% |
| 30% | +42.9% |
| 40% | +66.7% |
| 50% | +100% |
| 60% | +150% |
| 70% | +233% |
| 80% | +400% |
| 90% | +900% |
| 95% | +1,900% |
Recovery percentages grow much faster than losses because every gain has to work from a smaller base. This is the entire mathematical case for risk management: a 10% loss is a bad week, but an 80% loss needs a 5x just to get back to zero progress. Small losses are recoverable events; large losses are portfolio funerals.
Practical conclusions: size positions so no single failure is catastrophic (position size calculator), respect stop-losses while losses are still small, and be slowest to risk big drawdowns in assets with no floor. More in Portfolio Strategy & Risk Management.
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