The Importance of National Cannabis Brands

In reviewing what themes our readers click through most in our newsletter, anything related to cannabis is always a big hit. Interest in cannabis investing peaked last year, and now is the time when everyone appears fearful so you’re supposed to be greedy. If your investment thesis hasn’t changed, then now is the time to back up the truck and load up on shares of cannabis stocks. Right?

While there is money to be made in cannabis stocks as an investment thesis, the irrationality on display would keep most moderately conservative investors on the sidelines. We’re more likely to favor the approach described in our article on Investing in the Ancillary Cannabis Sector. Only invest in companies that incidentally benefit from increasing cannabis legalization – if you can figure out who they are. Another conservative way to play the cannabis theme would be to invest in one of the two major thematic ETFs for cannabis: the Horizons Marijuana Life Sciences Index ETF (HMMJ), or the ETFMG Alternative Harvest ETF (MJ).

Investors with a higher risk tolerance can cherry-pick stocks. There are the large Canadian growers, most of which trade in Canada and the United States. Then we have the “multi state operators” (MS