How many Dow points were lost during the 2010 Flash Crash’s steepest intraday plunge?

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost nearly 1,000 points during the steepest part of the 2010 Flash Crash.

On May 6, 2010, the Dow plunged about 1,000 points in minutes, including roughly 600 points in a few minutes. The fall was followed by a rapid partial recovery, making the event one of the clearest examples of an extreme intraday market dislocation rather than a conventional, steadily developing bear market.

Investigations found that automated trading played a major role. A large sell order in the E-mini S&P 500 futures market interacted with high-frequency trading and declining liquidity, producing a feedback loop of selling. Some securities briefly traded at bizarre prices before normal conditions returned.

The event led regulators and exchanges to introduce or strengthen safeguards, including circuit breakers and coordinated procedures for cancelling clearly erroneous trades. The Flash Crash is often confused with a full-day market crash: the defining feature was its extraordinary speed and partial reversal within the same session.