Short-selling the internet, by sector ... Is the web out of style?

Short sellers are a strange breed when they are "only short sellers" in their approach. They may have different motivations than others, and they may have a different time horizon. Some of them are also gluttons for punishment and sometimes you would think they are purely out to stand in front of a freight train. They may fight over the valuations, but they are definitely standing in the middle of an ongoing trend.

The core internet stocks saw a mixed bag, but you'll be surprised when you see the short sellers are betting harder and harder against Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN).

Can you believe short sellers were betting against the online advertisers? When I saw this I couldn't help but blurt out "What a bunch of dumb %$#@s!" Sorry to be rude, but if I saw an adviser or broker making those trades, they would be fired on the spot.

Betting against the online brokerage firms is a pure bet against the market and a pure bet against overall trading volume. Short sellers have been increasing their pact against these firms, so maybe they are thinking "sell in May and go away" is the right thing for this summer.

Short sellers are betting harder and harder against all of the internet incubators ... can you say CMGI (NASDAQ: CMGI)?

Internet security was a mixed bag. With "hacking season" starting, as college and high school kids have wayyyy too much free time on their hands, you might as well expect the hack reports to pick up by mid-July.

Online travel stocks didn't give very much insight, but there are still quite a few dollars betting against the sector.

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.