How long did the dramatic price collapse of the 2010 Flash Crash last?

The dramatic price collapse of the 2010 Flash Crash lasted about 36 minutes.

On May 6, 2010, major U.S. stock indexes suddenly plunged and then recovered much of the loss before the trading day ended. The Dow Jones Industrial Average temporarily fell almost 1,000 points, while some individual securities briefly traded at extremely low prices. The event was unusually rapid compared with traditional market crashes.

Investigations found that high-frequency trading, algorithmic orders, and a large sell order in E-mini S&P 500 futures interacted in destabilizing ways. The precise sequence was complex, and later research emphasized that no single mechanism explains every market movement during the episode.

The Flash Crash is often confused with a conventional bear market or a full-day crash. Its defining feature was speed: a severe dislocation developed and largely reversed within the same afternoon. The event led exchanges and regulators to adopt stronger monitoring, trading pauses, and rules for clearly erroneous transactions.