The rapid U.S. market collapse on May 6, 2010, was called the Flash Crash.
During the afternoon, major U.S. equity indexes fell extremely quickly before recovering much of the decline. The Dow Jones Industrial Average temporarily lost nearly 1,000 points, or about 9%, within minutes. Some individual securities briefly traded at extraordinarily low prices.
Investigations concluded that high-frequency trading and automated order interactions helped amplify the move. A large sell order in E-mini S&P 500 futures was executed through an algorithm, while liquidity was already limited. The exact chain of events involved many market participants and remains more complex than a single-cause explanation.
The event led regulators and exchanges to strengthen safeguards, including market-wide circuit breakers and mechanisms addressing erroneous trades. It is distinct from Black Monday in 1987 because the 2010 decline was exceptionally rapid and largely reversed the same day.