The
May 6, 2010, Flash Crash also known as
The Crash of 2:45, the
2010 Flash Crash or simply the
Flash Crash, was a United States trillion-dollar
stock market crash, which started at 2:32 and lasted for approximately 36 minutes. Stock indexes, such as the
S&P 500,
Dow Jones Industrial Average and
Nasdaq Composite, collapsed and rebounded very rapidly. The Dow Jones Industrial Average had its biggest intraday point drop (from the opening) up to that point, plunging 998.5 points (about 9%), most within minutes, only to recover a large part of the loss. It was also the second-largest intraday
point swing (difference between intraday high and intraday low) up to that point, at 1,010.14 points. The prices of stocks, stock index futures, options and
exchange-traded fund (ETFs) were volatile, thus trading volume spiked. A CFTC 2014 report described it as one of the most turbulent periods in the history of financial markets.