Flash crash

So imagine you have a bunch of toys and you want to sell them to other kids. You go to a big playground where many other kids also want to buy and sell toys.

In the same way, there is a place where grown-ups buy and sell things called the stock market. People buy and sell things like stocks, which represent a small part of a company.

Sometimes, something happens that makes many people want to sell their stocks all at the same time. This can make the price of the stock go down very quickly, which is called a "flash crash".

It's like everyone at the playground suddenly decided they didn't want your toys anymore, and you had to lower the price a lot to get anyone to buy them.

But when this happens on the stock market, it can affect a lot of people's money, and the stock market can lose a lot of value quickly. It's not always clear why these flash crashes happen, but it can be scary for people who have invested money in the stock market.