contrarian

Etymology

c. 1660 contrary + -an

noun

1. A person who likes or tends to express a contradicting viewpoint, especially one who denounces the majority persuasion.
   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. 2010, Martin Amis, The Observer reprinted in The Rub of Time (NY: Knopf, 2018), p. 334
   Kierkegaard had no university career, and 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. 2016, Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails, Other Press, page 17
2. (finance) A financial investor who tends to have an opinion of market trends at variance with most others.
   However, to 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. 2010-12-17, Michael C. Thomsett, Getting Started in Stock Investing and Trading, John Wiley & Sons, page 174

adj

1. Pertaining to or characteristic of a contrarian.
   The second part explores the normative forms of adolescent resistance and contrarian behavior that vex parents and teachers alike. This discussion is within the context of chapters that look at the ways in which parenting and teaching for moral development can positively make use of these normative challenges. 2005-01-15, Larry Nucci, Conflict, Contradiction, and Contrarian Elements in Moral Development and Education, Psychology Press
   Yet at the same time, 401(k) traders became more contrarian in their response to falling markets during the crisis. Therefore, the increased sensitivity to market volatility was offset, in part, by a tendency to 'buy on the dips' in response to falling markets. 2012-09-27, Raimond Maurer, Olivia S. Mitchell, Mark J. Warshawsky, Reshaping Retirement Security: Lessons from the Global Financial Crisis, Oxford University Press on Demand, page 115
   Then I discovered that there could never be a single “I” who could speak for me, I could only communicate an aspect of myself: sometimes more friendly, sometimes more contrarian. 2013-02-12, Phillip Lopate, To Show and to Tell: The Craft of Literary Nonfiction, Simon and Schuster