Contrarian
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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.
In Sociology, the term can be understood as an attitude of going against the establishment in terms of the social mores of the time. A social contrarian attempts to show to others that there is something inherently wrong with their limited world view.
Ricky Schmidt
January 10, 2007
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