The trillion-dollar questions over the flash crash and the Hound of Hounslow
What's the big deal? As the name indicates, the "flash crash" in the US stock market on 6 May 2010 didn't last long. The loss of $1 trillion of stock market value was temporary. Calm - and normal share prices - returned within half an hour. The vast majority of investors - millions of people with long-term savings or pension money invested in US companies - didn't lose a dollar. Most weren't even stressed by the stock market's rollercoaster ride. They were busy getting on with their lives.
Unfortunately, the flash crash cannot be dismissed so lightly. The reason it still matters and the reason why the alleged role of Navinder Singh Sarao - dubbed the Hound of Hounslow in a nod to the 2013 film The Wolf of Wall Street - is so intriguing - is that it may have been a near miss.
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