If you blame computers for the market’s recent volatility, it’s just blaming the messenger for bearing bad news. That’s because computers are doing what their human programmers have instructed them to do. Computers may be quicker and more efficient than humans, but they only do what they’re told. By blaming them, investors avoid focusing on the truth of the matter — and how to handle it properly. These at least are the conclusions I reached after interviewing Lawrence Tint, chairman of Quantal, a risk-management firm for institutional investors, and until 2000, U.S. CEO of BGI, the organization that created iShares BLK, +0.18% . Tint says the panicked selling of recent sessions can be explained by investors engaging in what they always do after a long bull market: Unaccustomed to losses, they sell at the first sign of trouble. “I am not aware of anything happening in the market over the last two weeks that wouldn’t otherwise be happening even without computers,” he said.via