You say "selling pressure from some of the old investors here." And you speak as if it is independent of the short sales.
This is not my field of expertise, but logically, especially if you look at the patten today of immediate sells upon any buy--are not the shorts creating the drive to sell by your (hypothetical) longs--again, if they are there? If the shorts were not holding the price down, fewer of your (hypothetical) shareholders would sell. You dismiss the role of the shorts as creating the best possible market for the longs to sell. That is not credible to me. Again, look at the pattern today. Were those immediate sales by longs, and if so, why, why at wait til then to sell at the BID?