For many years, marijuana stocks were the hottest thing on Wall Street. Early investors in brand-name pot stocks managed to generate gains of 1,000%, 3,000%, and even more than 7,000% in some instances in just a few years. But as is true of all next-big-thing industries over the past quarter of a century, all good things come to an end.
The past six months have been nothing short of brutal for cannabis stock investors. The Horizons Marijuana Life Sciences ETF, the first exchange-traded fund focused on cannabis, has shed nearly half of its value.
And if that wasn't enough to demonstrate just how poor things have gone for pot stocks, here's another statistic to chew on: At the industry's peak, there were 17 pot stocks with a billion-dollar valuation. Today, there are only nine left with a market cap in excess of $1 billion. Harvest Health & Recreation, HEXO, OrganiGram, CannTrust, Cresco Labs, Trulieve Cannabis, Acreage Holdings, and Charlotte's Web all once sported billion-dollar market caps, but do no longer.