I have always been fascinated by the idea of contrarian investing. My interest most likely stems from my affinity toward outside the box thinkers such as Michael Burry who correctly predicted and profited from the 2008 housing crisis, and Robert Shiller for his work in the field of behavioral economics. While the idea of beating the market by going against the tide is alluring, my thesis intends to test if it is truly possible. I intend on developing a strategy that utilizes extreme bullish/bearish sentiment in the “AAII Investor Sentiment Survey” and then analyzing S&P 500 returns thereafter to test if buying into weak sentiment and selling into strong sentiment is a viable way to beat the market. In my reading on the topic thus far, I explore concepts such as myopic loss aversion and the overreaction hypothesis to help explain the large swings in market sentiment that are often accompanied with opportunistic entry/exit points in the S&P 500. I draw extensively from Eugene Fama, Robert Shiller, Werner De Bondt, and Richard Thaler to understand what has already been explored in the subject and plan on adding an empirical analysis to the debate.