Loss Recovery Calculator

What Gain Do You Need to Break Even?

Enter your loss and see exactly how much the price has to rise just to get back to even.

What this calculator does

Losses and gains aren't symmetrical. After a loss you have less money working for you, so the gain needed to get back to even is always larger than the loss itself, and the gap grows fast as losses deepen.
This calculator shows that "loss trap" in plain numbers so you can judge a losing position honestly and set a stop-loss rule before a small loss becomes a hard one.

How to use it

Enter your loss: Type your current loss as a percentage, e.g. 30 for a 30% loss. A minus sign is fine too.
Read the result instantly: The gain needed to break even updates as you type, no button needed.
Check the reality check: A short message tells you how hard that recovery is likely to be.

Loss vs. gain needed to break even

The deeper the loss, the harder the climb back

Loss	Gain needed
-10%	+11.1%
-20%	+25%
-30%	+42.9%
-50%	+100% (2x)
-75%	+300% (4x)
-90%	+900% (10x)

Your current loss

Enter your loss as a percentage (e.g. 30).

Loss Recovery Calculator FAQ

Because the gain is calculated on a smaller amount. If $10,000 falls 50% to $5,000, you need to make $5,000 on a $5,000 base, which is a 100% gain.
The formula is Gain needed = 1 ÷ (1 − loss) − 1. The deeper the loss, the faster the required gain grows: -20% needs +25%, -50% needs +100%, and -90% needs +900%.

A disciplined stop-loss. Losses of 10-20% can be recovered with ordinary market gains, but beyond -50% you need returns that are rare even in strong bull markets.
Decide in advance how much you're willing to lose on a position and exit when it's reached. Protecting capital keeps your future options open.

Yes. Buying more at a lower price reduces your average cost, so the percentage rise needed to break even gets smaller. But it also puts more money into the same position, increasing your total risk.
Averaging down makes sense only when you still believe in the asset. Use the Average Down Calculator to see exactly how much a buy would move your break-even point.

The urge to recover fast usually leads to bigger bets and a second loss. Remember that time is also an asset. A realistic plan with steady returns beats a desperate high-risk trade.
Look at the number honestly, decide whether the position still deserves your money, and plan the recovery over months or years rather than days.

Yes. Trading fees, spreads and taxes on gains all mean you need a little more than the calculated return to truly be back to even. For foreign assets, currency moves can help or hurt as well.
A conservative habit is to aim for 1-2 percentage points above the number shown here.

A 90% loss needs a 900% gain (10x) to recover, far beyond what the overall market typically delivers. That doesn't mean the money is gone forever, but waiting for the same asset to 10x may not be the best path.
Re-examine whether the asset still has real prospects. Moving what's left into something with better odds can sometimes be the faster route back.