How long did the 2010 Flash Crash take for U.S. stock markets to recover much of their losses?

The 2010 Flash Crash took about 36 minutes for U.S. stock markets to recover much of their losses. On May 6, 2010, major U.S. indexes plunged rapidly and then rebounded before the trading session ended.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly lost nearly 1,000 points, while many individual securities experienced extreme and short-lived price movements. Some trades occurred at prices far outside the levels seen immediately before the event.

Investigations by U.S. regulators concluded that a large automated sell order in the E-mini S&P 500 futures market interacted with high-frequency trading and other automated strategies. The resulting feedback loop overwhelmed available liquidity and accelerated the decline.

The event led to reforms including single-stock circuit breakers and later market-wide safeguards. It is distinct from a conventional prolonged crash: the defining feature was the speed of the fall and the partial recovery within the same afternoon.