Deep Dive into the Flash Crash

Must-Watch Videos for Traders

This video should be compulsory viewing for all traders…

  • The first is a recording of the ES Depth Of Market during the 6th May 2010 flash crash.
  • The second is a replay of the footprint chart.

What’s even better is it has pit audio and commentary overlaid onto both, so you can hear what’s happening in the S&P 500 pit at the same time as seeing the price action on the screen.
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Anyway, it’s good to see and appreciate supply-demand flows during a wild day.
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Things to note:

  1. Watch how the selling comes in waves, getting bigger and bigger.
  2. Notice how we will always pop a bit, but hit a wall, followed by a bid sweep.
  3. In the second video see how the footprint shifts and listen to the audio clues alongside it.

Here’s the first video of the market depth.

This is the second video, it has a bit more context into what happened after the low was hit.

ES tried to catch a bid but it wasn’t until big buyers stepped in that we really got going.
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Keep an eye out for 9 minutes in – we are trading at $1090 and Ben says

  • “JP trying to buy”
  • “JP can’t buy”
  • “JP with Merrill”

I remember this vividly, I was subscribed to this pit audio and trading that day. Ben telling us that institutions were stepping in to buy was priceless for the bounce trade…
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​Which reminds me, in this article I talk about the pit audio and the “Number One Local” and how he used to bully the market around.
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How times change!