2010 flash crash
The 2010 flash crash was an event where many stocks on the stock market suddenly fell a lot in value and then quickly rose back up. Imagine if you have a lot of toys and suddenly someone takes them away really fast and then gives them back just as quickly. That's kind of what the stock market did that day in 2010.
Basically, a lot of big investment companies were using computers to buy and sell stocks really quickly, and something went wrong with the way the computers were working. It's like if your toy robot suddenly started doing the wrong thing because it got confused. When the computers started selling stocks really quickly, the prices fell and fell, which made all the other computers start selling even faster because they thought they were losing money. This is sort of like when you get scared because your friend is scared.
As the day went on, people started realizing what was happening and stopped trading (buying and selling stocks) for a while, until things calmed down. Eventually, the stock market went back to normal, but a lot of people were really worried for a while. It's kind of like if you had a big fall but then suddenly realized you were okay and went back to playing like nothing happened.
Basically, a lot of big investment companies were using computers to buy and sell stocks really quickly, and something went wrong with the way the computers were working. It's like if your toy robot suddenly started doing the wrong thing because it got confused. When the computers started selling stocks really quickly, the prices fell and fell, which made all the other computers start selling even faster because they thought they were losing money. This is sort of like when you get scared because your friend is scared.
As the day went on, people started realizing what was happening and stopped trading (buying and selling stocks) for a while, until things calmed down. Eventually, the stock market went back to normal, but a lot of people were really worried for a while. It's kind of like if you had a big fall but then suddenly realized you were okay and went back to playing like nothing happened.