If you're a contrarian investor you see value where others don't. It's all about going against the crowd and for that reason it's often seen as cool. You're a lone wolf, away from the herd and forging your own path. But you can still lose money.

One popular and well-known contrarian investment strategy, in a world where there's plenty of them, has been picking the worst stocks of the current year and betting they will be the turnaround stories of the next 12 months.