A unfinished project that'll pop out rumors that cause panic every now and then will certainly drive away market makers (not speculators , market maker is a different term ) .
Market makers provides liquidity , without several major market makers competing with each other , the market is easy to manipulate .
Market makers need to watch the price and earn small profits .
Those huge order in the past at exchange was an example of market maker operation (sort of ) . That makes BitShares withstand lots of volume .
But with the pattern that how this project pops out bad news , people who dare to market making for BitShares will be hit constantly . Sooner or later , big players and small players will jump to another market to do market making . ( It runs through bots , they can jump ship easily )
While we all want to say "we don't need those who care about the price" , well , that's just to the complainers . Those who care about the price and stability most were the ones who provide liquidity the most . It'll be wise for them to stay away from BitShares and find another simple project with little drama to run their operation or only run short term operation in BitShares .
The down trend is related to many reasons of course , the absence of major market making operation is certainly one of them .
Market markers are like the oxygen pump in the pond ..... Without them , there is not much wave in the pond . (Again , market makers is not pure speculators or pumper and dumpers , the difference is hard to master ) . Just check out how that works in Nasdaq , but of course that's more formal .
Without an active market , no big investors would even consider looking at BitShares , because it'll be hard to exit . I've talked to a guy who is quite fond of BitShares , but in the end he choose to buy Bitcoin , because it's impossible for him to in and out of BitShares with such low liquidity .
Of course , some of us thinks the ways and the laws in the real world don't apply to BitShares because we're so free and have a bright future etc..etc .... Then ignore me .
You can always build a project with codes and talks , but you can only build a market will real people who don't care about idealism but cold hard financial rules .
Hope that provides some insight on "why there looks like no resistance in the market ? " because those who can resist are either left or still waiting a better time to entry .
PS.Again , Market makers are not exactly "whales" "big buyers" ...... but they're essential for big players .
And again , I think the software itself is gonna be amazing with or without PR consideration . If what we're here for is just to build a software , then screw PR .... software don't need PR . It's just a code store in a computer . But if we're here to build a financial system that interacts with the real world , real investors , real grandpas and grandmas ....