Weed Stocks

[northparkbuyer]

[quote]It’s going to be a pump and dump that extracts money from people desperate to invest in the legalization of weed.[/quote]

Maybe, and I guess fit the profile. If there was a Weed Mutual Fund, I’d dump PHOT today and put my $5K there to speculate on the “Green Rush.”

But as far as I know, there isn’t, so I’m sticking with PHOT.

Nobody should be mortgaging their house to invest in penny stocks, but as a purely speculative play in an embryonic industry, it will be a fun ride win or lose.

[paramount]

Ok, I was going to go long on phot. I’m out, I didn’t do as well as most here by selling yesterday, but my overall gain was 160%.

[northparkbuyer]

Uh oh….

http://www.forbes.com/sites/nathanvardi/2014/04/10/sec-halts-trading-in-growlife-as-pot-stocks-get-crushed/?partner=yahootix

[livinincali]

You can look at the CANN chart if you want to know what to expect when this stock opens back. PHOT will probably open around 0.10-0.20 and then rally fairly well, but you never know. People playing momo hot money stocks hate having their money tied up.

[paramount]

May be time to exit the market and get into cash.

[Coronita]

[quote=paramount]May be time to exit the market and get into cash.[/quote]

Looks like smart money is pulling out of the markets a bit. Tech looks to be getting hammered. Other things, not so much…

[CA renter]

So far, the only other person I’ve seen mention the margin debt issue is spdrun. People should really be paying attention to this.

http://www.advisorperspectives.com/dshort/updates/NYSE-Margin-Debt-and-the-SPX.php

[an]

[quote=paramount]May be time to exit the market and get into cash.[/quote]I did just that. except I went to the negative instead of sitting on cash.

[paramount]

[quote=CA renter]So far, the only other person I’ve seen mention the margin debt issue is spdrun. People should really be paying attention to this.

http://www.advisorperspectives.com/dshort/updates/NYSE-Margin-Debt-and-the-SPX.php%5B/quote%5D

I’ve read some comments on yahoo about margin debt (some positive), but as a card carrying member of the joe six-pack club I have to say I’m still surprised by the one thing the market responds to: comments by the fed.

That seems to be the only meaningful ‘data’ point these days.

Now more than ever I am convinced this economy is heading for a collapse/deep depression. I’m not exactly sure of the timing, but the event horizon can’t be far.

[CA renter]

[quote=AN][quote=paramount]May be time to exit the market and get into cash.[/quote]I did just that. except I went to the negative instead of sitting on cash.[/quote]

Ditto. I started shorting yesterday morning, and plan to add to my short positions anytime we get a new run-up in the stock market. This is the first time I’ve felt fairly confident in shorting the market since before the financial collapse (just a couple of one-off trades on individual stocks since October 2008). I think we’re going to see something at least as damaging as what we saw in 2008, if not worse.

Of course, I tend to be early, but think that between now and 2017 (probably sooner, rather than later), things are going to fall apart.

[paramount]

phot back trading again, down sharply. I may buy again…

[livinincali]

[quote=paramount]phot back trading again, down sharply. I may buy again…[/quote]

I’d probably give it a few days to stabilize. Usually in an event like this there’s panic selling then a brief bounce and a retest of the lows over the next few days.

[bearishgurl]

This was in the news this morning:

http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2014/05/01/colorado-edible-marijuana-task-force/?icid=maing-grid7%7Chtmlws-main-bb%7Cdl28%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D471054

I’m wondering if CO’s Medicaid expenses have risen substantially yet due to its recent legalization of recreational MJ (incl “edibles”) …

[livinincali]

[quote=bearishgurl]This was in the news this morning:

http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2014/05/01/colorado-edible-marijuana-task-force/?icid=maing-grid7%7Chtmlws-main-bb%7Cdl28%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D471054

I’m wondering if CO’s Medicaid expenses have risen substantially yet due to its recent legalization of recreational MJ (incl “edibles”) …[/quote]

CO Medicaid expenses rose substantially due to Obamacare. It would be impossible to know what small percentage increase could be attributed to the legalization of weed. Although it won’t surprise me if the anti weed lobby doesn’t try to put together some kind of report attributing the rise in Medicaid expenses as being directly related to the legalization of weed. With the report totally ignoring all the new Obamacare signups. That’s how things are done these days unfortunately.

[bearishgurl]

[quote=livinincali][quote=bearishgurl]This was in the news this morning:

http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2014/05/01/colorado-edible-marijuana-task-force/?icid=maing-grid7%7Chtmlws-main-bb%7Cdl28%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D471054

I’m wondering if CO’s Medicaid expenses have risen substantially yet due to its recent legalization of recreational MJ (incl “edibles”) …[/quote]

CO Medicaid expenses rose substantially due to Obamacare. It would be impossible to know what small percentage increase could be attributed to the legalization of weed. Although it won’t surprise me if the anti weed lobby doesn’t try to put together some kind of report attributing the rise in Medicaid expenses as being directly related to the legalization of weed. With the report totally ignoring all the new Obamacare signups. That’s how things are done these days unfortunately.[/quote]

I feel the “weed (sales) taxes” are high enough in CO that the state can use their (large) share to help fund indigent healthcare (incl migrant workers and all those who were otherwise ineligible to sign up for expanded Medicaid) if they so choose. This may have to be legislated but it is doable.

Look what eventually happened to cigarette taxes after Big Tobacco was sued with multiple class action suits for wrongful death/disability. In recent years, taxes on tobacco products have gone thru the stratosphere so they can be used to fund cancer research and other public health-related projects throughout the country.

What I DO worry about, though, is the small (w/1-16K permanent residents) CO mountain towns, nearly all quite “bucolic” (and there are many) which are between 7500 and 10000 feet in altitude (and often surrounded by much higher, narrow roads). I’ve noticed online that some of these towns, however small, seem to now have 1-6 MJ “dispenaries” located in their midst (a disproportionate amount for such a small population). Obviously, they are there to cater to the tourists. Tourists ALREADY don’t understand the drastic change altitude can wreak on their body under normal circumstances. Add in partaking of a couple of premium joints and a super-duper brownie to the mix and then getting into a river raft, jeep or hot-air balloon within 36 hrs of arriving and these towns could have a very sick tourist on their hands …. with no hospitals within an hour (longer in the winter).

I hope CO’s search and rescue teams are being heavily trained in treating altitude sickness and severe nausea and lightheadedness which could last for days ….

Example: typical Texan flatlander college student who just arrived by plane with a group from home for a ski vacation at 11000 feet the evening before and had to sleep with a wet washcloth over his sinuses so he could run heat in his room:

“Come on, ya’ll … Dude, yo, just look at those double-black diamonds!” Then, 6 sec later and 20-50 feet down (on his back with one ski which came to rest 100 yards below him) and now COMMITTED, “COME ON, YA’LL, I DID IT, COME ON!”

The above scenario happened routinely LONG BEFORE POT was legalized and is just the tip of the iceberg that search and rescue teams have deal with every day there. Often, the S&R is the ONLY medical choice available, even for someone who keels over with a heart attack on the sidewalk standing in the middle of town.

Take this same scenario with same 20-yo Texan 1st or 2nd-time skier who has already partaken of 2 fortified joints and one super brownie and insert catastrophe … not only for him but every skier unlucky enough to be in his path.

I just don’t think its a good thing that there are so many dispensaries in the CO Rockies. Most of these towns (referred to in CO legalese as “home-rule municipalities”):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_and_towns_in_Colorado

… are used to relying on volunteer fire depts and the like and for the most part do not have the resources to deal with the fallout of this new legislation and will likely wind up having to use the bulk of their share of the new pot taxes to beef up their S&R teams. But despite the high sales taxes they are collecting from pot sales, these towns won’t even break even because a substantial portion of the boomers (65%+?) with the desire AND the funds to retire in these not-so-cheap hamlets will be turned off by the aroma of pot wafting in the street everywhere on their house-hunting trips when they were originally looking for “fresh air and solitude” to retire in.

In sum, I don’t think CO’s “pot-legalization experiment” is going to end well for them, partly due to 5/8 of the state being moderately or extremely rugged and not always easy to reach. This saga will be interesting to follow from here on out.

[Author]

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