Five Years After the “Flash Crash” Answers Still Elusive

May 6th marks the 5 year anniversary of the “Flash Crash” when the Dow Jones Index plunged almost 10 percent in a matter of minutes for seemingly no reason. Computer driven trading accelerated the anomaly sending some stock prices to a penny and others to $99,999.  Just this month, a trader working out of his basement in London is being accused of setting the whole fiasco into motion utilizing an illegal trading strategy called “Spoofing”.  Seems unlikely that he is the real cause, but five years on, it looks like we may never find out the truth.        

Article from the Wall Street Journal outlining the slow progress in preventing another crash.

An explanation of spoofing in the trading of stocks.