Capital Preservation
The principle of protecting trading capital above all else — because you cannot trade without capital, survival is the first objective.
Capital preservation is the philosophy that staying solvent is more important than maximising returns. A trader who loses 50% of capital needs a 100% return to recover. A trader who never loses more than 15–20% in any drawdown stays in the game long enough for the edge to manifest.
Preservation-first traders size down aggressively in losing streaks, refuse to double down on losing trades, and treat a losing month as data rather than a reason to take bigger bets.