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 ( overreaction hypothesis). investors might have overreacted to bad news sending the asset price lower than it should be. Bloomberg Financial Dictionary
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an investor who believes in doing the opposite to most other investors at any one time:
• A long-sighted contrarian might now get rid of equities in favour of real estate.
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Someone who moves or acts in the opposite direction to the general trend. A contrarian investor buys stock when the rest of the market is selling.
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contrarian UK US /kənˈtreəriən/ noun [C] FINANCE, STOCK MARKET
► an investor who does the opposite of what most other investors are doing: »
He is a contrarian who likes to buy stocks whose price is depressed by bad news he believes is only temporary.
Financial and business terms. 2012.