The flash crash of 2010 was largely blamed on electronic trading however there were certain precedents many years before in the trading pits as outlined in the 1987 Chicago Tribune article, Exchanges Drowning in Orders. I think Merton Miller said it best in the article: ``The market makers` inventories are quickly exhausted, in much the same way tellers` windows are drained of ready cash during a run at a bank.``
Personally, I believe the futures markets still suffer from the same structural issues with how a lot of perceived liquidity flees in an instant but history shows that markets won't change until there is a significant problem like the Crash of 87 which occurred later in the year of the article.