contrarian

Investor or speculator who acts contrary to conventional wisdom: he or she is bearish when others are bullish, and vice versa. Contrarian philosophy is based on the observation that most people who believe the market will go up have already bought all they could and have no purchasing power left; hence the market has to go down when they start to sell. Conversely, those who believe market will go down have already liquidated their holdings and have a lot of purchasing power, hence the market has to go up when they start to buy.

It's fascinating how differently the same business can perform with two different leaders. We look first for intellectual honesty. It drives me crazy when you meet with management and there are real issues and they act like they aren't there. Also important is a contrarian bent, a confidence to go against the prevailing trend. You generally don't want people who are saying this is what we should do because this is what others are doing. You want people who are spending when others are not, and taking chips off the table when everybody else is putting them on.