In general, the ideal contrarian prospect is a stock, no one follows, no one reads about, it's off the radar screen. Or, it's a well known stock that has cratered. Everyone knows it's history. Shareholders who owned it and lost big, before selling, won't consider rebuying it. It's a leper. Some of the lepers pass over to the final resting place for spent corporations, but many do in fact recover, and can be great investments.
With the analogy I couldn't resist the line from the old Monty Python film The Life of Brian, appropriate for this time of year, actually as it follows the life of a poor fellow named Brian who happens to be in the next stable down the road and around the same time as Jesus. Initially mistaken for Jesus, it gives his parallel story. Which segues to my point of where, later on, Jesus having cured a leper of his affliction, said leper is still going around with his begging bowl, asking instead, "alms for an ex-leper? alms for an ex-leper?" That was all he knew to do, though now free of the disease.
Another contrarian play that might be less risky than dealing with an individual company that may crash-and-burn totally would be to buy ETF's of the lowest ranked relative strength. These are the ones of companies in the least favor. Likely they will return to favor sooner or later, and in so doing, afford the investor a tidy profit. Buy low, sell high, after all.
Best,
AIMster