During the 2010 Flash Crash, about how long did the sharpest market collapse and recovery take?

During the 2010 Flash Crash, the sharpest market collapse and recovery took about 36 minutes.

On May 6, 2010, major U.S. stock indexes fell rapidly and then recovered much of the loss. The Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly dropped almost 1,000 points, at that time its largest intraday point decline, before rebounding.

Investigations by U.S. regulators concluded that a large automated sell order, combined with high-frequency trading and stressed market conditions, helped produce a feedback loop. Liquidity disappeared in parts of the market, causing some securities to trade at extraordinary prices.

The event exposed weaknesses in market structure rather than resembling a traditional months-long crash. Regulators later introduced measures such as circuit breakers and coordinated trading controls. The exact mechanics involved several interacting factors, so descriptions that attribute the entire event to one computer program oversimplify the official findings.