🛡️ Calculator · Risk Survival

Drawdown Survival Calculator

ROI is what you see on the highlight reel. Drawdown is what kills accounts. Plug in a lead trader's max drawdown and see how your capital holds up — including stress scenarios where it gets worse than history.

Your inputs

Stress-test your account against the trader's worst historical period.

USDT
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Worst-case scenario

If history repeats — or gets worse — here's what your account looks like.

Account at historical max drawdown $0
Account at stressed drawdown $0
Loss at historical max DD $0
Loss at stressed DD $0
Consecutive losing trades to hit stop-loss 0
Recovery needed to break even 0%
Stop-loss triggered at $0
Starting
$0
Hist DD
$0
Stressed
$0
⚠️ Drawdowns can exceed history A trader's "max drawdown" is the worst they've shown so far — not a ceiling. New macro events, leverage spikes, or a single bad trade can blow past historical numbers. Always size for 1.5–2× the displayed max DD.

Why drawdown matters more than ROI

The asymmetry of losses

A 50% drawdown requires a 100% gain to recover. A 75% drawdown requires a 300% gain. That's why drawdown is the single most important number on a lead trader's profile — bigger than ROI, bigger than win rate. The recovery percentage in the results panel shows you exactly what you'd need to climb back to break-even.

What's a healthy max drawdown?

Under 5% over 30 days is excellent. 5–15% is normal for active traders. Anything above 25% is a yellow flag, and above 40% is a red flag — that's casino territory regardless of what the ROI looks like. The screenshot examples in our guide show traders at 0.44%, 0.55%, and 5.83% which range from very tight to active.

Why use a stress multiplier?

Because the next drawdown can always be worse than history. A trader showing 5% max DD over 30 days could easily see 10–15% during a flash crash, exchange outage, or correlated crypto sell-off. Sizing for 1.5× or 2× the displayed max gives you a survival buffer. If 2× the displayed DD would force you out of the trade, your position is too big.

Where do I set a stop-loss in copy trading?

On Bitunix, the stop-loss field is on the copy setup page (we recommend 5–25% depending on the trader's history). On BTCC and MEXC the placement is similar. Setting a stop-loss doesn't override the lead trader's positions — it triggers a market exit on your follower account once your equity drops by that percent.

Copy trading platforms we recommend

Each of these supports the metrics this calculator uses — ROI history, drawdown, win rate, and copy modes.

#1 Pick
Bitunix
Beginner-friendly Task Center · 125× leverage · Propotional & Fixed Amount copy modes. Available in 100+ countries.
Go to Bitunix →
#2 Pick
BTCC
12 years live · zero hacks · accepts US residents · up to 500× leverage. The longest-standing copy trading platform.
Go to BTCC →
#3 Pick
MEXC
4,200+ coins · 200× leverage · 0% maker / 0.02% taker fees — the lowest in the industry. Great for altcoin copy trading.
Go to MEXC →

Other copy trading calculators

Each tool stress-tests a different angle of the copy trading decision.

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