Contrarian Shopping List

"We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful." -- Warren Buffett

Out of the quadrillions of quotations quarried from that most loquacious of quotationists, this one holds a special place in the hearts of Foolish investors. Are you looking to "buy low" so as to later "sell high?" If so, your best chance of getting that initial, low entry price comes when panicked sellers are unloading their shares at whatever price is on offer.

In today's column, we search the ranks of Wall Street's motivated sellers, and note which stocks they're most frantic to unload. Therein may lie the makings of a contrarian investor's shopping list. But don't just take my word for it. Before you decide to go in through Wall Street's out door, check your thinking against the collective intelligence of Motley Fool CAPS investors.

Today's contenders include:

The problem with pessimism
The problem with going against the grain on Wall Street is that when professional traders get pessimistic, their grim outlook can become a self-fulfilling prophecy -- at least in the short term. The more desperate to abandon a stock institutions become, the lower the price they'll accept to get rid of it. And as their "ask" prices drop, the "bid" prices of buyers will fall in tandem, creating the very price decline that they feared in the first place.

Until the selling stops.

When it will stop is anybody's guess. But until it does, savvy investors have a chance to "get greedy," and snap up some bargains from these fearful sellers (if bargains they truly be).

Excuse me -- have we met?
I don't know about you, but today's list is giving me a serious case of deja vu. Much like last week, we're staring at a list topped by a business process outsourcer. Last Tuesday, it was PeopleSupport. Today, the sole stock to escape the curse of a below-average rating is another offshore business facilitator, ICT Group, which like PeopleSupport operates call centers abroad. Here's what our players have to say about it:

• Once again, CAPS superstar pennysplants takes the lead, arguing that offshoring is a long-term trend, and that within that broader trend: "I perceive ICTG as quite strong over the long term... Consolidation in this sector is also a big potential plus."
• But if all that's true, then why is Wall Street selling off ICT? Baoluo explains: "Currently undervalued because investors are overreacting to the 4Q06 earnings warning on 4Jan... my DCF and multiples analysis puts fair price at ~34. The bad news is irrelevant to the big picture, and does not indicate future poor performance."
• CAPS newcomer ValueInvesting agrees, saying: "The reaction to the missed earnings was way overdone. Increased demand for NA call center work required many more new employees and OT work. This is a very temporary problem which will not effect [sic] the long term profitability of this company."

Time to sound off
Do you agree with our amateur equity analysts that ICT Group has a bright future, as more and more U.S. corporations reach out to a world gone flat? Or is there something we're missing -- a backlash against offshoring, or a looming economic downturn perhaps?

Whatever your views, don't keep them to yourself! Come on over to Motley Fool CAPS and join the discussion. Get a load off your chest, and share what you know with your fellow investors. Together, we'll beat the Street yet.

Fool contributor Rich Smith does not own shares of any company named above. You can find him on CAPS, publicly pontificating under the handle TMFDitty, where he's currently ranked 70th out of nearly 25,000 raters. The Fool has a disclosure policy.