The 2010 U.S. stock-market plunge was nicknamed the Flash Crash.
On May 6, 2010, major U.S. equity indexes suddenly dropped and then recovered much of the loss within roughly 36 minutes. The Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly lost nearly 1,000 points, or about 9%, before rebounding. Individual securities also displayed extreme temporary price movements.
Investigations concluded that automated trading and market conditions interacted in a destabilizing way. A large sell order in E-mini S&P 500 futures was identified as an important contributor, while high-frequency traders and fragmented markets amplified the move. The Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission later described a complex chain rather than a single simple cause.
The Flash Crash differs from a conventional prolonged bear market. Its defining feature was extraordinary speed: prices plunged and recovered during one trading session, exposing weaknesses in electronic market structure and liquidity.