Don't count 'em out: 12 contrarian calls that may just surge in 2025

Buy Hold Sell, by Livewire Markets

Sometimes, the best investment ideas are the ones that either no one thinks of or the herd has left for dead. Two years ago, Australian property trusts finished the year down 20% as the fastest interest rate hiking cycle in 40 years left a scarring impact on valuations. But if you were, to paraphrase Warren Buffett, being greedy and buying up REITs in 2023 when others were fearful, you would have finished up with the second best-performing asset class in the following year.

Or, consider Chinese equities, cellar-dwellers in 2021, 2022, and 2023. But as of the end of Q3 2024, they actually top the BlackRock asset class quilt. In other words, being courageous (given the right research, attractive fundamentals, and some luck) can sometimes net you the biggest returns.

And of course, who could forget some of the bravest calls in all of investment folklore. Once upon a time, short US housing was a massive bet. But Michael Burry and Steve Eisman are now famous for it. Or buying British Pounds and converting them to German Deutsche Marks was a very brave way to short the British economy. But thanks to his research and his guts, George Soros made a $2 billion profit and earned the moniker "the man who broke the Bank of England."

With this spirit in mind, we've asked 10 young-gun stock pickers to tell us about a contrarian investment they are backing in 2025. The stocks they mention span the full length of the consumer - from long-forgotten retailers to luxury brands known the world over.

Other honourable mentions include growth stocks which may have been forgotten about in this AI-induced rally and four names linked to the commodities trade, which must say something about where fundies are finding the most value right now.

To find out what the stocks are, watch the video, listen to the podcast, or read our edited transcript at this website.