From my understanding of taxation: if you are a share trader as...

From my understanding of taxation: if you are a share trader as opposed to an investor you do not need to sell the shares to claim a loss. This is dependant of the frequency of your trades and the type of stocks you buy. HAW is a small cap spec and those who are in are most likely frequent traders. Therefore, they can claim a loss on the value of their shares at year end.

But then there may be some who are selling as they are 'investors', or simply do not understand accounting/taxation.

Or the more plausible reason - manipulation!