Here is a screenshot at the end of today to illustrate typical short seller behavior.
From your comment, I think you are misreading the entries in the buy sell columns, but i understand your thinking, that lots of buyers and high volume reflect a demand for the stock. But sometimes things are not what they first seem.
If there was a huge demand for the stock, those bullish buyers would be snapping up what is being offered by the sellers, and so clearing out price points on the sell side and the price would jump up.
With the opposite, shorters who are trying to reduce the price, will show up in the buy column, offering lower bids, hoping the price will come to them. And they stay away from the highest bid, and load up on the price points below that. So in this case, illustrated above, when 0.21 is cleared out, the price drops down one step. If that happens the bidders than drop their bids down and move their volume down one. And they continue that pattern.
Also note the huge volume on the sell side at 0.22 of 660k. That is a forced resistance to the price moving up. Compare the full day's trade of 336k; about half that volume.
So shorters sit heavily on the buy side making lower and lower bids, and of shares that they buy at those lower bids, they then load the sell side with the same shares to create resistance. And if that resistance is broken, then they will still make a profit selling those more cheaply bought shares at a higher price. Combined, these simulatenous positions, are aimed at causing a downward momentum.
AVQ Price at posting:
21.0¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Not Held