Tweed Marijuana Stocks 3rd Most Traded in Canada, Up 183% in Friday Trading
It is not just the Wolf of Weed Street who made a lot of money on trading medical cannabis stocks. Early traders of Tweed Marijuana (TWD) shares on Friday, when the company became the first publicly traded producer of medical weed at the TSX Venture Exchange in Canada, also got a financial high.
That day, shares of Tweed soared 183 per cent at 2:07 pm from its issued price on March 7 of 89 cents to $2.52. It had actually gone down from the opening price of $5.10 but is still the third-most traded issued in Canada as 9.64 million shares were either sold or bought.
Over the weekend, the Smith Falls, Ontario-based company disclosed that it purchased over 60 new strains of medical marijuana seeds and plants from licensed growers. The firm's current market value is $89 million.
Tweed will sell 25 strains to Canadian patients for $5-$12 per gramme, shipping included. Minimum order is 1 gramme, and delivery is via bonded courier.
Health Canada estimates that within the next decade, the medical pot market could grow to $1.3 billion.
In the U.S., medical marijuana shares have ballooned at even higher rates. For 2014, shares of Tranzbyte Corp, which sells cannabis in Colorado following the drug's legalisation, soared 2,352 per cent. Another firm, GreenGro Technologies, provider of management services to medical marijuana dispensaries, enjoyed an 892 per cent boost in its share prices since January.
However, Metro Canada columnist Alison Griffiths warned against placing too much faith in marijuana shares since the cannabis industry is "too young to qualify as a sound investment or even a reasonable speculation."
She cited that some stocks such as that of Advanced Cannabis Solutions (CANN), Hemp Inc (HEMP) and GrowLife (PHOT) are mostly traded informally over-the-counter exchanges or bulletin boards, making its trading volume data dubious if not erratic.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually suspended trading in CANN stock due to suspicions of insider trading.
Likewise, InvestorPlace writer Dan Burrows urged readers to run away from the four largest marijuana stocks "without looking back," namely CannaVest (CANV), Medical Marijuana (MJNA), GrowLife and Cannabis Science (CBIS).
He pointed out that besides not being traded in major exchanges like the New York Stock Exchange of Nasdaq, they are not the types of bourse guidelines to help validate an enterprise and provide transparency.
Besides Tweed, other Canadian medical cannabis publicly listed firms are also enjoying some amount of success. It includes Maple Leaf Green World (V.MGW) whose stocks are up 1,750 per cent since mid-March and Chlormet Technology (V.CMT) which logged a 50.8 per cent growth in share price on Thursday.