Maximum Drawdown

The calculation tracks the running maximum of the price series and records the deepest percentage shortfall beneath it at any later point. It answers what the worst historical decline from a prior high has been. It is expressed as a negative percentage and is defined by exactly two observations in the entire history.

How it is computed

minimum over all dates t of (price at t / running maximum price up to t - 1) x 100

Where it misleads

Because two prints define the figure, a single bad tick on a thin venue can set an asset's maximum drawdown permanently, and no subsequent data corrects it. The measure is monotone in history length: an older asset almost always shows a deeper maximum drawdown than a younger one, so ranking on this column ranks age as much as fragility. It captures price only and therefore misses the way many participants actually lost value, through venue insolvencies such as the November 2022 FTX failure and through bridge exploits, where prices recovered but positions did not. It also says nothing about how long the decline lasted or whether it was ever recovered.

The equity comparison, and why it fails

Maximum drawdown in fund performance reporting; fund drawdowns are computed on audited periodic net asset values with a defined start date, while this uses a continuous provider series whose start date is a coverage decision.

Reading a high or a low value

A larger negative figure means a deeper historical decline from a prior high. It records one past episode and is not a bound on future declines.