An investor who does the opposite of what most investors are doing at any particular time. According to contrarian opinion, if everyone is certain that something is going to happen, it won’t. This is because most people who say the market will go up are fully invested so they have no more purchasing power, which means the market is at its peak. When people predict decline they have already sold out, so the market can only go up. Contrarian investing shares many qualities with value investing. The difference is, contrarian stocks aren't just cheap, they are also actively disliked by investors. That can make them risky but potentially lucrative investments.

An investor who marches to a different drummer is sometimes described as a contrarian. In other words, if most investors are buying shares, a contrarian is concentrating on building a bond portfolio or putting more money into cash investments. This approach is based, in part, on the idea that if everybody expects something to happen, it probably won't. In addition, the contrarian believes that if other investors are fully committed to a certain type of investment, they're not likely to have cash available if a better one comes along. But the contrarian would. Contrarian mutual funds use this approach as their investment strategy, concentrating on building a portfolio of out-of-favor (and therefore often undervalued) investments.

Contrarian investing Contributed capital

The theory of contrary opinion holds that when more than 80 percent of analysts are bullish then it can be assumed that they and their followers have taken long positions leaving fewer potential buyers to absorb any selling that develops. The converse is true when 80 percent of analysts are bearish.

A trader or investor with a contrary opinion is a contrarian. The principle of contrary opinion holds that when the vast majority of people agree on anything, they are generally wrong. A true contrarian, therefore will try to determine what the majority are doing and then will act in the opposite direction. One such method involves monitoring the views of professional stock market letters to reasonably accurately gauge of the attitudes of the trading public.

An investment style that leads one to buy assets that have performed poorly and sell assets that have performed well. There are two possible reasons this strategy might work. The first is a mean-reversion argument; that is, if the asset has deviated from its usual level, it should eventually return to that usual level. The second reason has to do with overreaction. Investors might have overreacted to bad news sending the asset price lower than it should be.

an investor who deliberately decides to go against the prevailing wisdom of other investors

a person who bets on the opposite of the conventional wisdom

An investor who marches to the beat of a drummer different from that of the herd. When the majority of investors are bullish, the contrarian is bearish, or is investing in under-loved companies or industries.

A contrarian is an investor who buys things other investors are shunning. If most investors are buying stocks, a contrarian is concentrating on building a bond portfolio or putting more money into cash investments. Contrarian mutual funds use this approach as their investment strategy, concentrating on building a portfolio of out-of-favor (and therefore often undervalued) investments.

the fish who swims against the school; the sheep who separates himself from the flock. In Contra's case, we buy shares in listed companies who have experienced major financial difficulties but appear ready to right themselves

An investor who does the opposite of what most investors are doing a that particular time.

Describes an investor that believes and does the exact opposite of what the majority of investors are doing at any given moment. For example, contrarians might perceive value in a stock or index that is out of favor, or has performed poorly. Whereas most investors would avoid an out of favor investment, contrarians would buy it in hopes of a turn around or change in market sentiment.

An investor who buys when most people are selling and sells when most people are buying. In practice, this is very difficult to do, partly for psychological reasons, but if done successfully can improve returns. Systematic rebalancing can be used to enforce contrarian behaviour.

Investor who thinks and acts in opposition to the conventional wisdom; when the majority of investors are bearish, a contrarian is bullish and vice versa.

an investor who does the opposite of what most investors do. For example, if most people are selling airline stocks, then a contrarian will buy airline stocks.

an investor who, in buying or selling, does the opposite of what most other investors are doing

Contrarian investments will, by definition, behave differently to other investments in the financial marketplace. We don't want to be knee-jerk contrarians, necessarily selling what others are buying, or buying what others are selling. But lopsided sentiment can often be a useful indicator that a market or sector is close to a top or bottom, and as contrarians, we often search among such investments for opportunities. Another sense of "contrary" involves investments that tend to move in a contrary manner to the broad market, or, in technical parlance, that are "non-correlated". Precious metals and commodities generally have low correlations as do emerging markets. For people of means, true diversification requires a respectable allocation to such non-correlated asset classes.

Investor who do the opposite of what most other investors are doing. In other words, if most investors are buying, the contrarian will sell and vice versa. The contrarian believes that when the market is going up, most people are already or nearly fully invested and have no additional funds to make more purchases. Thus, if the market has not already reached its peak, it will do so in the near future. Conversely, when other investors believe the market will or is declining, they have already sold their investments. Thus, there are little or no sellers left and the market can only go up. See: Bear Market; Bull Market

Investment strategy that invests contrary to prevailing market trends.

Used to describe an investment style in which a portfolio manager selects investments that are out of favor or have little current market interest, on the premise that gains will be realized when the investments return to favor. Contrarians buy securities that nobody else wants (at the moment).

Investor who does the opposite of what most other investors are doing. In other words, if most investors are buying, the contrarian will sell and vice versa. The contrarian believes that when the market reaches its top most people are already fully invested and have no additional funds to make more purchases. Thus, if the market has almost reached its peak, it will start to decline in the near future. Conversely, when other investors believe that the market is declining, they have already sold their investments. Thus, there are little or no sellers left and the market and it is time to buy.

An investor who does the opposite to the majority of other investors.

In finance, a contrarian takes the view that widespread pessimism tends to lead to market rallies and that widespread optimism tends to lead to market slumps. Contrarians are sometimes thought of as perma-bears—market participants who are permanently biased to a bear market view. However, the contrarian is not biased specifically towards a negative view of the price trend in a market, but rather takes a contrary position to the prevailing crowd's view, whether that view is positive or negative.