How long did the 2010 Flash Crash take to erase and recover nearly 1,000 Dow points?

The 2010 Flash Crash took about 36 minutes to erase and recover nearly 1,000 Dow points.

On May 6, 2010, United States stock markets experienced an exceptionally rapid plunge. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost almost 1,000 points, roughly 9%, during the session before recovering much of the decline. Many individual securities also traded at prices far outside their recent ranges.

Investigations found that automated trading, market fragmentation, liquidity problems, and a large sell order contributed to the event. The Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission later concluded that a trader’s algorithmic order was an important initiating factor, while other systems amplified the move.

The episode led to new market safeguards, including circuit breakers and mechanisms for reviewing clearly erroneous trades. It was not the same as a conventional, multi-day stock-market crash driven solely by investor panic.