Short sellers are selectively making very mixed short selling activities in the high-priced market leaders.  Some are seeing gains, others are seeing lower short selling.  We tracked the moves for the February 28, 2011 date and compared this to the February 15, 2011 settlement date and prior dates where applicable.  Our short interest screen included Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), Baidu, I
nc. (NASDAQ: BIDU), F5 Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIV), Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE: GS), Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM), Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE: MA), Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX), Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan (NYSE: POT), Priceline.com Incorporated (NASDAQ: PCLN), Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE: CRM), VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), and Wynn Resorts Ltd. (NASDAQ: WYNN).

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) saw a big drop to 7.79 million shares at the Feb. 28 date versus 9.743 million shares as of the FEB 15 settlement date.  This is back to a lower average in the Amazon short interest if you keep in mind that as of September 30, Amazon’s short interest was over 16 million shares.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) saw a drop to 10.139 million shares short as of the Feb. 28 settlement date versus 10.916 million shares as of FEB 15 settlement date. There had previously been a rise and this is still much higher than at the beginning of the year.

Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) saw a large drop to 5.37 million shares short as of the Feb. 28 settlement date versus 7.073 million shares short as of FEB 15 settlement.  This is actually the lowest short interest in a year.

F5 Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIV) saw a drop to 4.826 million shares short as of FEB 28 versus 5.55 million shares in the short interest as of FEB 15 settlement.  This is just back in line with prior short interest levels.

Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE: GS) saw a tiny uptick in the short interest to 3.956 million shares short from 3.921 million shares as of FEB 15 and versus 3.985 million shares as of January 31.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) saw another uptick in short selling to 3.911 million shares short as of FEB 28 settlement date versus some 3.628 million shares as of FEB 15 settlement date and versus 3.478 million shares as of January 31.  This is four periods in a row of higher short interest in Google.