Meaning of contrarian | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A person who likes or tends to express a contradicting viewpoint, especially from one held by a majority of people, usually because of nonconformity or spite.
2. A financial investor who tends to have an opinion of market trends at variance with most others.

Equivalents

Examples

“Christopher [Hitchens] is bored by the epithet contrarian, which has been trailing him around for a quarter of a century. What he is, in any case, is an autocontrarian: he seeks not just the most difficult position, but the most difficult position for Christopher Hitchens.”

“[Søren] Kierkegaard had no university career, and [Friedrich] Nietzsche was a professor of Greek and Roman philology who had to retire because of ill health. Both were individualists, and both were contrarians by nature, dedicated to making people uncomfortable.”

“Hello, he lied / Like velvet, this magician's sleight of tongue and hand / Hello, he lied / Beware, belie his smile / As warm and calculated as heroin / Beware the contrarian”

“[T]o succeed as a contrarian, you have to be able to time trades in exactly the opposite direction of the majority. This means you have to move in when everyone else is fearful, and step back when everyone else is euphoric. This advice is easier to give than to follow, so contrarians are not just good at timing. They also are highly disciplined and able to set and follow rules for themselves that fly in the face of what the majority thinks.”

CEFR level