The 2010 Flash Crash caused a sudden plunge in US stock indexes on May 6, 2010.
During the afternoon, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped about 1,000 points, briefly losing roughly 9 percent of its value before recovering much of the decline. Some individual securities traded at extremely low prices, while others briefly surged.
Investigations linked the episode to a combination of market stress, high-speed trading, and a large automated sell order. The US Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission later described how trading strategies and fragmented markets amplified the move.
The event differed from a traditional crash because much of the decline and recovery happened within minutes. It led to new safeguards, including circuit breakers designed to pause trading during unusually rapid price movements.