How long did the 2010 Flash Crash last before markets largely recovered?

The 2010 Flash Crash lasted about 36 minutes before markets largely recovered.

On May 6, 2010, U.S. markets experienced an exceptionally rapid collapse and rebound. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 1,000 points, or about 9%, during the afternoon session. Many individual securities experienced extreme and short-lived price movements, including trades at implausibly low or high prices.

The sharpest disruption occurred between approximately 2:32 p.m. and 3:07 p.m. Eastern Time. Regulators later concluded that a large automated sell order, combined with high-frequency trading and stressed market conditions, helped intensify the decline. The event exposed weaknesses in the interaction between electronic trading systems and fragmented markets.

The Flash Crash was not a normal multi-month bear market. It was a brief market-structure shock, and many major indexes recovered much of their losses before the session ended. The incident led to measures including circuit breakers and rules concerning erroneous trades.