Drawdown arithmetic: why a 50% loss needs a 100% recovery
Losses and recoveries are measured on different bases. From that one fact: the recovery table, sequence risk, and where the 50% close-out rule stands.
The Journal
Read the market like a document.
Fact-checked writing on how trading actually works: costs, sessions, leverage rules and risk arithmetic. Cited to regulators and central banks, never to hype.
August 12, 2026Est. 2026 · 10 articles
Cover story
How ESMA reshaped retail CFD leverage, and why the caps never left
What ESMA's 2018 leverage caps actually say, the loss statistics behind them, and how a three-month emergency measure became permanent across Europe.
Figures from the file
Lifted from the articles · primary-sourced
Latest from the desk
6 stories shown
What actually changes from demo to live
Demo fills are simulated and losses are imaginary; live trading adds real liquidity and loss aversion. Position size is the bridge between the two.
How ESMA reshaped retail CFD leverage, and why the caps never left
What ESMA's 2018 leverage caps actually say, the loss statistics behind them, and how a three-month emergency measure became permanent across Europe.
How we price our reference data, and why it never pretends to be live
What the “Reference pricing · 60-min cache” stamp on our markets pages means: three data lanes, one honesty contract, and the numbers we refuse to show.
The overnight swap, or what holding an FX position really costs
The swap line is the rate differential between two currencies plus a broker markup. Why both sides can be negative, and why Wednesday charges three nights.
The 24-hour market is not uniform
FX trades around the clock, but depth follows the working day of a few cities: four sessions, one deep overlap, and a thin patch at the daily rollover.
Editors' picks
Chosen by the desk, not by a popularity metric.
The full cost of a CFD trade, from spread to slippage
Four costs arrive on different schedules with different visibility. We convert all of them into dollars on one EUR/USD position held five nights.
How we price our reference data, and why it never pretends to be live
What the “Reference pricing · 60-min cache” stamp on our markets pages means: three data lanes, one honesty contract, and the numbers we refuse to show.
Reading threads
Three short routes through the file
The cost of holding
What a position really costs, from the spread you see to the calendar you don't.
The survival arithmetic
From the warning label to the sizing decision it is pointing at.
Know the machine
The rulebook, the pricing behind this platform, and why the education is free.
The source shelf
26 documents · 10 institutions
Journal articles cite the primary record: decisions, statistics and rulebooks as published, not summaries of summaries. The shelf, tallied from every citation:
- European Securities and Markets Authority8 documents
- Bank for International Settlements5 documents
- European Central Bank4 documents
- Financial Conduct Authority3 documents
- Autorité des marchés financiers1 document
- Bell System Technical Journal1 document
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System1 document
- Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission1 document
- Econometrica1 document
- Frankfurter1 document
Read with the numbers in hand
The Journal pairs with free tools: forty-four education articles, a sixty-six-term glossary and trading calculators, all ungated.