BOSTON (MarketWatch) � The Mayans have Dec. 21 penciled in for the end of the world, but after the first few weeks of 2012, there�s one question to ask on Wall Street.
Can the conventional wisdom last that long?
Already the new year is shaping up to be more interesting than most people realize.
So far this year, the contrarians have been on top and Wall Street�s conventional wisdom has been knocked about badly.
/quotes/zigman/87598/quotes/nls/nflx NFLX 105.19, -1.94, -1.81%
Netflix, year-to-date
This week Netflix NFLX �skyrocketed as quarterly results trounced expectations.
A few days earlier, retailer Sears Holdings SHLD �boomed as chairman Eddie Lampert bought about $170 million in shares. There are rumors he may try to take the company private.
What did those two stocks have in common? Easy. At the start of the year, Wall Street hated them both.
! Both Netflix and Sears Holdings were on the list I published a few weeks ago, of the 10 stocks Wall Street analysts hated the most coming into 2012. Read �Should you buy Wall Street�s top stocks for 2012?�
/quotes/zigman/95136/quotes/nls/shld SHLD 73.90, +0.48, +0.65%
Sears Holdings, year-to-date
So far this year Netflix is up 68%, Sears 38%. (Oh, and Netflix started 2011 as one of the stocks analysts loved the most, and promptly collapsed).
Overall, Wall Street�s �10 most hated stocks,� as compiled with the help of Reuters, is up 14% since Dec. 31.
That�s twice the return from the 10 stocks analysts actually liked the most. Google GOOG , which made analysts swoon, is already down 11%.
And the 14% return is nearly three times the 5% gain you would have made just from owning the Standard & Poor�s 500 index SPX .
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Netflix recovers subscribers
After a summer price hike, Netflix added 610,000 U.S. subscribers as it worked to regain footing with customers, Ian Sherr reports on digits. Photo: Getty Images.Who wanted Bank of America BAC �stock coming into 2012? Nobody. People on Wall Street wouldn�t been seen dead owning this stock.
So far it�s up 32%. No kidding. Citigroup C , another leper on the Street of Shame, is up 16%.
The only bank it was respectable to own was Wells Fargo WFC . It�s up a much more modest 7%.
Strange times? OK, maybe not. The 10 most hated stocks frequently beat the 10 most loved.
But you probably wouldn�t normally expect such a big gap so soon.
Conventional wisdom is there to be overturned. When everyone is betting one way, the shrewd move is often to look for opportunities to go the other way.
Everyone still hates the euro, European equities, and Japanese equities. They love U.S. stocks. They hate bonds, and like equities. Hardly any investors own any gold. Make of it what you will. 
