I don't know more than anyone else but it would seem to me that the fund said if you want your money you won't get much because if we sell the shares it will drive the price to near zero. On the other hand you can take the stock and over time are most likely to get more since the shares won't likely all be sold by all investors at the same time and therefore not driving down the price.
DAAT could not survive a sudden sale of the number of shares disclosed in the form 4.
I suspect that the "as of" date was given for one of two reasons.
1. The distribution was done to various parties on different dates. 2. They realized that they forgot to make a filing or intentionally delayed a filing. Their lawyers just told them to say that they were distributed "as of" rather than indicate when they were actually distributed.
A seller or two showed up in early December and the selling intensified in mid December. I suspect that we now know who the sellers were. Also, the seller has been gone the past two days. I suspect the timing isn't a coincidence.
Also, someone might of started shorting their shares knowing that they could cover with the shares they would ultimately receive.
littlefish & Mike - I agree with your assessment... IMO, the unusually heavy volume during the last several weeks was likely shareholders shorting the stock in anticipation of covering the short with the distributed stock... If this is accurate, then most of the selling has already taken place and is behind us...