Maximum Drawdown
Maximum Drawdown — Peak-to-trough loss — primary risk budget metric.
Definition
Maximum Drawdown refers to peak-to-trough loss — primary risk budget metric. Keep that definition fixed when comparing series, managers, or regimes — renaming the same tape does not create a new signal.
Why it matters
It shows up in factor research, attribution, and capacity debates — whether a return slice is skill, style, or fee drag. When peak-to-trough loss — primary risk budget metric shifts, related hedges, limits, and narratives usually need an explicit update rather than a quiet assumption.
Case
Suppose a desk is positioned for the opposite of what maximum drawdown is saying. If peak-to-trough loss — primary risk budget metric moves against that book, the first question is not “is the story clever?” but whether size, hedges, and stop logic still match the observation.
How to read it
Check definition stability across universes, costs, and regimes before treating a backtest as portable. Prefer a short written null hypothesis for Maximum Drawdown: what would falsify the current reading in the next window?