What does minus 700 percent

Question

How can you get to a negative percent change.   If you loose 100 percent you have lost everything.   How can you loose minus 100 percent?

Answer 1

A percent is a number out of 100.  Minus is interpreted as "negative".

 

-700/100 = -7

Answer 2

Part of your confusion seems to be when "lose" and "minus" are combined.

 

It is possible, as Arturo O. illustrated, for a business to have a BIG loss.  That is a negative gain (that is, a loss is a negative profit).  So, minus 700% gain is pretty serious.  This is a big loss.

 

We would not normally use both "loss" and "minus" at the same time.  That's called a double negative -- like: "I'm not unhappy" -- that becomes a positive (or at least a non-negative) condition.

 

So, "How can you lose minus 700%?" means "How can you gain 700%," right?

Answer 3

Len, consider this example:

 

Suppose you had $100, and you invested the whole amount in some venture.  Suppose the venture goes terribly wrong, and you run up a debt of $600.  You are now $600 "in the hole", i.e. you owe $600 after starting with $100.  You went from a balance of +$100 to a balance of -$600.  Your balance fell by $700, which is 7 times the amount you started with, so you lost 700%.