The world is going to pot, just ask anyone raking in big investing in marijuana companies.
Among them is 20-year-old Montrealer Elliot Kovac. Three years ago, he took his earnings from being a summer camp counselor and invested in marijuana stocks.
Since then he's seen a return of roughly 12,000 per cent, he said.
“A ton of my friends are users, family members are users,” he added, and so he sensed an opportunity.
Kovac began by investing with the market leader for legal marijuana: Canopy Growth Corporation. He bought stock when a share was valued at $2.65—and sold them for $14 each.
On Wednesday, Canopy stock finished the day of trading valued at $32.32 per share. Not all are so high on legal marijuana stocks, notably many financial planners and money managers.
“They are not stocks that we have invested in for our clients,” said Portfolio Management Corp. Managing Director Norman Levine during an appearance on CTV's Money Matters. “If the government decides they want to tax too much and regulate too much, how much of the business is still going to be the guy at the corner who gives you better prices and better services?”
Kovac, ever the wunderkind, says he agrees with the risk assessment.
“I think this is a bubble right now,” he said, which is why he is slowly pulling money out of marijuana company stocks and diversifying, as he looks for his next big opportunity.
A previous version of this article stated Canopy Growth Corporation shares were currently valued at roughly $14 per share. As of Wednesday, Jan. 3, the stock ended the day trading at $32.32 per share. It was at $14 per share that Kovac sold his stake in the company. The article has been updated to reflect the correct information, and we regret the error.
—with files from CTV Reporter Rob Lurie