Drawdown is a strong function of time. Traders with longer histories are going to have larger drawdowns. Just like you are more likely to get tails 5 times in a row by flipping a coin 100 times versus 10 times.
A less-time-related measure of risk or downside is the standard deviation (or semi-deviation if a skewed distribution).
And taking a ratio of excess return to standard deviation gets you to the Sharpe ratio.
So if you are comparing traders I recommend the Sharpe ratio versus the Sterling ratio (return per drawdown).
Top hedge funds have a Sharpe ratio (monthly return / monthly standard deviation) of 40%+. I'd say individual traders can use this as a benchmark also.
