The percentage math of losses is asymmetric in a way that catches traders off guard: the deeper the drawdown, the disproportionately larger the recovery gain required. That math alone argues for a very different response to a losing streak than the instinct to trade bigger and win it back faster.
1. The recovery math
A 10% drawdown needs an 11% gain to recover. A 25% drawdown needs a 33% gain. A 50% drawdown needs a 100% gain just to get back to even. Because the required recovery accelerates faster than the loss itself, the deeper a drawdown gets, the more dangerous it becomes to try to trade your way out of it aggressively.
2. Sizing down, not up
The instinct after a losing streak is often to increase size to recover losses faster. The math above argues the opposite: reducing size during a drawdown limits how much worse the recovery math can get if the losing streak continues, buying time to reassess rather than compounding the problem.
3. Distinguishing normal variance from a broken strategy
Every strategy with a real edge still produces losing streaks; that's normal statistical variance, not proof the strategy stopped working. The distinction that matters is whether the losses came from following the strategy correctly (normal variance) or from deviating from it under pressure (a discipline problem). Fixing the wrong one doesn't solve anything.