ENGLAND
CHRIS RATCLIFFE
London—After two wild minutes of early-hours trading in Asia, the British pound dropped over 6 percent to hit its lowest level in 31 years on October 7. While the pound mysteriously rebounded almost as quickly as it had fallen, the chaotic “flash crash” raised fears about the looming British exit from the European Union and the role of computer-driven trades, which move many times faster than those done by a person. “This is the most volatile move seen from sterling since Brexit, yet it can be argued that relative to Brexit, this sell-off was more dramatic,” Matt Simpson, a market analyst in Singapore, told Bloomberg. “Nobody was prepared for it.”