The Flash Crash caused U.S. stocks to plunge rapidly and then recover within minutes on May 6, 2010.
During the 2010 Flash Crash, major U.S. equity indexes fell sharply in a very short period before recovering much of the loss. Some individual securities briefly traded at extremely low prices. The event demonstrated how electronic markets could transmit sell pressure at extraordinary speed.
Investigations found that automated trading, market fragmentation, and a large sell order contributed to the disruption. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Securities and Exchange Commission later described a sequence in which algorithmic activity and declining liquidity amplified the move.
The Flash Crash differed from a conventional bear market because its most dramatic decline and rebound occurred intraday. It also differed from the 1987 crash, which produced a much larger sustained one-day percentage loss in the Dow.