SS,
I have never wanted to be a contrarian investor. They almost always -- by definition -- get into positions too early and therefore spend a lot of time sitting on their hands and loosing money before they can make money.
To be consistent in the definition, contrarians will also almost always get out of positions too early or short too early.
Therefore, they always tend to make less money (or loose more money) than non-contrarians.
Compared to what? Compared to those who try to time entries and exits just right.
Contrarians, by definition, cannot ever time the market very well if they are good contrarians. That is because momentum can cause markets to remain overbought or oversold for long periods of time, and those are the times when contrarians enter their orders.
