The sharpest phase of the 2010 Flash Crash lasted about 36 minutes, according to U.S. market regulators.
On May 6, 2010, U.S. equity markets experienced an exceptionally rapid decline and partial recovery. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped nearly 1,000 points, or about 9 percent, before recovering much of the loss. Many individual securities briefly traded at extremely low or high prices.
A joint investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission found that a large automated sell order in E-mini S&P 500 futures interacted with high-frequency trading and market conditions. The event showed how algorithmic strategies and fragmented markets could amplify a large order.
The crash is not the same as a conventional bear market. Its defining feature was the speed of the fall and rebound. Regulators later introduced measures including circuit breakers and coordinated trading pauses to reduce the risk of similar disorder.