S&P 500 · July 2, 2010
Europe's crisis and the flash crash
-15.99%
peak-to-trough, the whole slide
49 trading days · 2010-04-23 → 2010-07-02
back to the old high on 2010-11-04
What happened that day?
- From the high on 23 April 2010 to the low on 2 July, the S&P 500 fell 15.99% over 49 trading days
- It emerged that Greece's finances were far worse than reported, and alarm spread across Europe
- On 6 May, US shares collapsed and recovered within minutes — the episode known as the flash crash
- Automated trading programs reacted to one another and prices simply vanished. Some stocks traded at a cent
- It showed how fast a market can break when it runs without human judgement in the loop
- Recovery took about six months. This high was regained that November
Sources
Every figure on this page is recomputed from the original daily closing prices and checked against them at build time. The account of what happened is written from the sources listed above.