The 2010 Flash Crash was the official name commonly used for the rapid US market plunge and recovery on May 6, 2010.
During the afternoon, major US equity indexes fell sharply within minutes before recovering much of the decline. The Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly lost nearly 1,000 points, or about 9 percent, its largest intraday point drop at that time. Some individual securities traded at extremely low prices before normal conditions returned.
A joint investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission linked the event to a large automated sale of futures contracts combined with stressed market conditions and high-frequency trading. The investigation described a feedback loop in which orders and liquidity interacted in destabilizing ways.
The flash crash was different from a conventional bear market: its defining feature was speed. It also prompted changes to market safeguards, including circuit breakers designed to pause trading during abrupt price movements.