The head of a specialist US research company has blamed programme traders, who use computers to profit from discrepancies between the prices of stock market indices, for the sharp fall in the Dow Jones Industrial Average last week.

Hank Camp, who runs HL Camp & Company, an investment adviser that specialises in programme trading research, believes about 250 points of the 400 point fall in the Dow Jones Industrial Average last Tuesday was down to programme traders selling stock through index arbitrage strategies.