During the 2010 Flash Crash, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost about 1,000 points before recovering much of the drop.
On May 6, 2010, U.S. markets fell extraordinarily quickly. The Dow’s decline was about 1,000 points, or roughly 9%, within minutes, making it one of the largest intraday point swings in its history. Many individual securities briefly traded at wildly distorted prices.
Investigations linked the event to a combination of high-frequency trading, automated orders, market fragility and a large sell order in E-mini S&P 500 futures. The precise mechanics were complex, but the episode demonstrated how automated systems could amplify a short-lived liquidity shock.
The market recovered much of the loss before the session ended, which distinguishes a flash crash from a conventional multi-day bear market. Regulators later introduced or strengthened safeguards, including single-stock circuit breakers and market-wide mechanisms designed to pause trading during extreme moves.