"There are contrarian funds."

A fund like Lens is the ultimate contrarian fund.

There are plenty of contrarian funds betting just that.

Another 11 percent is in contrarian funds; they often take bearish positions in particular sectors.

Unlike many of the so-called contrarian mutual funds, Leuthold Asset Allocation does not short stocks, no matter how dark the managers' view of the market.

A third is a contrarian fund not expected to do well when the market does.

As is true of other contrarian funds, Lindner shorts individual stocks.

Indeed, given that the market tends to rise over time, true contrarian funds have serious shortcomings.

"Bear and contrarian funds were the ones making money in the quarter," said Andrew Clark, a research analyst at Lipper.

"We are a contrarian fund," he said, "and we're looking for some more straw hats in the winter."