After a relatively placid afternoon of oscillating in the $19.70-$19.90 range the #1 trading vehicle for gold producers, the GDX, experienced a 'flash crash' during the final minute of today's trading session:

Click to enlarge

GDX_1-minute_12_3_2014

5 million shares traded during the final minute of today's session which included 1.25 million shares during a 2-second burst which saw price fall as low as $17.72!!

This 'flash crash' was clearly a GDX specific event because none of the major components of this exchange traded fund (ABX, GG, NEM, etc.) experienced anything even close to the volume and price action in GDX. In after hours trading GDX has already recovered almost all of its flash crash losses:

GDX_extended

Whoever executed the 1.25 million share order in the 2-second burst cost themselves roughly $800,000 by my calculations. While these 'flash crashes' have become rather commonplace in the current market environment, the fact that it occurred during the final minute of trading makes it a bit more unusual. It will be interesting to see if any additional information comes out regarding this odd trade.