The Daily History Chronicle

On May 6, 2010, nearly a trillion dollars vanished from Wall Street in thirty-six minutes then came back. The Flash Crash was triggered not by fraud or panic, but by a routine hedge meeting a market structure too precarious to absorb it. Richard Backus explores who was really responsible, what the investigation revealed, and why the question the Flash Crash raised in 2010 is more urgent today than it was then.