Drawdown measures the drop from an equity curve's high-water mark to its subsequent low, usually shown as a percentage. If a book grows to $10,000 and then falls to $8,500 before recovering, that's a 15% drawdown, regardless of how the win rate or average trade looked on the way there.
Maximum drawdown is the worst drawdown seen over the whole track record: the single number that answers "how bad did it get." It's arguably more important than average returns for judging whether a strategy (or a person) can actually survive running it live. A strategy with a great CAGR but a 60% max drawdown is a strategy most people abandon at the worst possible moment.
zengtrade's Risk Governor watches live drawdown continuously and steps sizing down, or halts new entries entirely via the kill-switch, as drawdown deepens, rather than letting a losing stretch compound unchecked.
Educational content, not investment advice. zengtrade is paper-first and non-custodial.