Was today's USA stock market crash made worse bc of computer programs running things instead of humans?

Question

I heard from a broker on the radio, that the market can react faster than human regulators can react to it, thereby letting situations like wild selloffs or panics to go on longer or dig deeper than they otherwise would. Like China today(2/27) selling off 9% of it's Shanghai market causing the US market to crash a little. He said if humans were watching the mining sector(Alcoa) panic sell off, it wouldn't have affected the market as bad. I'm not real knowledgable about this subject at all.

Answer 1

Mark; If you run the kind OF expense that the current
U.S. Administration has run -for SO long, (on the Invasion
[of even] THE wrong country).. eventually, -as with Vietnam-
'conflict', also being a Credit-fueled conflict.. Well, your Financial
Chickens, eventually.. "come home -to roost": (there simply
ISN'T any escaping "the bill." And, by 2009, it's going to get nasty.

(And as you've noticed.. one 'hicup' inh asia.. and the 'Landslide' begins, -just as it did -in late, 1969 -thereabouts).

Something you 300 -million big-spenders Do have to, (now..)
reckon with.. is that -[THIS time].. WILL the rest-of-the-Planet, "carry YOU"?
You are about a hair's-breadth from, (not only losing the Iraq 'fracus')..
you are BANKRUPT..

(-yet go right-on burning DOUBLE the energy, of even.. a
'high-living', Aussie)! -Kinda sounds ..irresponsible, -No?

But THIS time.. near [everybody is sick-to-the-teeth]
OF the "Good Ol', U.Sof A." You WILL ..tighten your belts;

-THIS time.

Answer 2

Today wasn't a crash, it was only a few percentage points down. Yes, it might have hurt your portfolio a bit, but it is much too early to consider this a "crash".
Here is an article that (I hope) puts a little perspective into what we are seeing and gets you in the right mindset to look at the markets for the next couple weeks.
http://www.valuestockreports.com/022707.htm

Answer 3

There was a computer glitch that caused prices to be lowered, but it was corrected by the end of the day. I think the glitch occurred due to the high number of sell transactions, causing a computer to crash and the back-up not coming up exactly correctly. However this issue was resolved before the market closed.