Plunge in US equities remains a mystery

By Michael Mackenzie and Henny Sender in New York

Published: May 7 2010 18:49 | Last updated: May 7 2010 20:01

The day after $1,000bn was briefly wiped off the market value of US equities, traders were still trying to work out what caused share prices to plunge and then rebound so dramatically in a matter of minutes.

The conventional wisdom held that an incorrectly typed sell order – one that confused “billionsâ€