A couple of years ago I created an index of the marijuana stocks that were trading at the time of the election, about $100 worth of each purchased October 1, 2012 for a total cost of $1,451.25. All but one of them were selling for less than a dollar, for much less than a dollar.
There are a couple I didn’t include because they were such obvious jokes.
Rapid Fire Marketing (RFMK) was one such joke which I did include because it was associated with Cheryl Shuman, who subsequently surprised nobody that had been paying attention when she engineered a hostile takeover of the grassroots organization Moms for Marijuana, alienating the rank and file, most of whom quit in disgust or were tossed out for questioning her methods. The entire Board of Directors resigned as well.
Notably not included was CANA (General Cannabis, formerly LC Luxuries Limited), the stock symbol for Justin Hartfield’s Weedmaps, which sold consistently for $4, and then plummeted as Hartfield ruthlessly diluted it and then sold it to SearchCore (SRER).
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SearchCore subsequently sold Weedmaps to RMJ BV, a private Dutch company, with the provision that SearchCore retained sole right to use the application for anything except marijuana, and the private Dutch company could use it only for marijuana. So, the people who invested in Hartfield in order to invest in marijuana got royally screwed.
SearchCore stock is now selling for a nickel ($0.058), if you can find anyone to buy it. And Hartfield, the man who in 2009 told the Wall Street Journal that medical marijuana is a “farce”, is today treasurer of NORML.
(The penny-stock currently trading under the symbol CANA (Cannabis-RX) is not the same people or business. It is a real-estate scheme.)
Another notable exclusion was GW Pharmaceuticals (GWPRF/GWPH), makers of Sativex. However, I did include GW in my Cannabis Index, which is an index of those marijuana stocks selling for more than $1 on the day before Christmas 2013, about $1,700 worth of each for a total cost of $28,498.30.
The 4,500 share AgriTech (AGTK) position was originally a 45,000 share MediSwipe (MWIP) position. MWIP executed a 1:10 reverse split 11 Dec 2013 and became AGTK. OmniCanna Health (ENDO), formerly X-Change Corp. (XCHC), was not a cannabis stock until it acquired Phytiva from Cannabis Science (CBIS) in December 2013.
One thing I noticed about the Cannabis Index is that it oscillated rather wildly during the past 3 months. This is not visible in the 6-month view. At a glance, it’s difficult to say what caused this. Perhaps a combination of the ups and downs of CannVest and VAPE.
I was taken by surprise by the breath-taking run-up that occurred upon the new year. I had expected any irrational exuberance to have been during the election and exhausted by year’s end, and I think that is what most people expected.
Instead, what we saw percentagewise was a bubble the equal of the internet-tech or dot-com bubbles. Medbox, on both indexes as the one marijuana stock (other than GW Pharma) that was selling over a dollar during the 2012 election, shot up to $120. (Google Finance is now showing a high on 8 Jan 2014 for MDBX of $93.50 and a close of $53.10, but I distinctly remember $120, maybe that was the Ask.)
One thing to note about these indexes (or portfolios) is that while they’re showing significant losses over the past 6 months, they’re showing a good increase from their beginnings.
The marijuana index, which is showing a (55%) or ($8,830) loss over the past 6 months, is showing an overall gain of 488% or $6,062 since 1 Oct 2012. Not bad for a $1,500 investment.
The Cannabis Index, which is showing a (39.6%) or ($18,681 loss over the past six months, is showing an overall gain of 162% or $17,620 since 24 Dec 2013.
In addition to my Marijuana Index and my Cannabis Index, I created an index of marijuana stocks that subsequently came to my attention, about $1,500 each of 15 stocks, some of them penny stocks some $1 stocks, for a total cost of $14,422.
The value of this portfolio as some sort of representation of the industry is questionable as the stocks were not all purchased at the same time, and most of them came to my attention after they’d been around awhile.
Cannabis Business Group (CBGI) was purchased 24 Dec 2013 and Abattis Bioceuticals (ATTBF) 31 Dec 2013. Creative Edge Nutrition (FITX), VaporBrands International (VAPR), and PetroTech Oil & Gas (PTOG) were purchased in February 2014; Crown Baus Capital, Corp. (CBCA) and Medican Enterprises Inc. (MDCN) in March 2014; Tweed Marijuana Inc. (TWD) in April 2014; and Mountain High Acquisitions (MYHI) in May 2014.
I haven’t looked at these stocks for months and don’t know what’s going on with them individually, but I think this chart most dramatically shows the astounding marijuana stock bubble that began on January 1st 2014, with an overall loss of (42.68%) or ($5,595).
For previous snapshots of these indexes see my Facebook album Marijuana Stocks