I think you're right BB, the buying at these levels is...

I think you're right BB, the buying at these levels is understandable and could be short-covering on a dip, bargain hunters or strategic accumulators, but the selling, sometimes in reasonably large licks (and outright trades not just the XTs etc..) I'd imagine is likely to be lumpy traders getting shaken-out

Spread-depth is not always a good indicator (especially during volatility) because it's no guide as to where and in what size the genuine sellers are (or buyers for that matter) as most of them sit off-screen - the spread is used in these cases to manipulate sentiment - don't forget trader psychology is more fragile just before expected news and the pros know this...

regarding a major s/h lightening, I guess anything's possible but you'd think they'd have taken the opportunity a few days ago when there was seriously strong volume at a vwap of near 10 or above to get out - nothing significant has happened since other than a few shakes to dislodge nervous nellies and ST trader stops. Major s/hs tend not to be spooked by that kind of thing. Who was it posted Top 20 data recently? Perhaps we can see an update to see where 'you-know-who' is - he said he was still a holder but said he would not comment further on the extent of his holdings (not that I blame him for that).

All in all, given the (transacted) buy/sell vol. ratios I consider it positive that it seems that there is still serious accumulation going on amd reasonably significant efforts to shake the price to get them - you can only really do that effectively if you're a large holder and have money to throw at it.