The Flash Crash Of May 2010: Accident Or Market Manipulation?

Abstract

On May 6th., 2010, the Dow fell about a thousand points in a half hour and Wall Street lost $800 billion of value. Some claim that it was just an isolated incident and there was nothing nefarious but with the majority of trading being done by electronic exchanges and with the increase in High Frequency Trading, evidence is emerging that the crash just might have been a case of deliberate manipulations of the market.