What nickname describes the sudden U.S. market plunge on May 6, 2010?

The sudden U.S. market plunge on May 6, 2010, is known as the Flash Crash.

During the event, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped about 1,000 points, or roughly 9%, within minutes before recovering much of the loss. Individual securities briefly traded at extremely unusual prices, exposing vulnerabilities in modern electronic markets.

Investigations found that automated trading and a large sell order in E-mini S&P 500 futures interacted with existing market conditions. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission later described how liquidity vanished rapidly across markets.

The Flash Crash was not a conventional multi-month bear market like the 1929 or 2008 collapses. Its defining feature was speed: a dramatic intraday dislocation followed by a partial recovery. Navinder Singh Sarao was later convicted in connection with spoofing-related conduct, although the event involved broader market mechanisms.