Reminiscences of a Cannabis Stock Trader
Although the pioneer days of 1920s stock trading are long gone, some similarities exist with today's cannabis stock industry, the wild wild west of OTC stock trading.
Today, I'm profiling one of our stakeholders, Sal Tracey, a Florida-based military analyst by day and stock trader in between. Tracey joined the navy right after high school and spent two years in Washington DC working for Intergraph in Alexandria. He was introduced to investing while at NJVC, an IT services company for the defense industry. He started trading from his IRA account, learning the ropes with his company matching the funds, growing his account quickly.
He was then given the opportunity to have a self-directed brokerage account with Scottrade, so he started taking more risk, and trading in the small caps and OTC markets. This was where the fun began for Tracey, as he quickly learned the art of leveraging.
Tracey also learned some hard lessons too. He had invested a substantial sum in Washington Mutual (WAMU) stock in 2008, one of the leading sub-prime stocks to go under, and he almost lost everything. He kept trading, however, and soon got his rhythm back. In 2013, Tracey was introduced to the cannabis stock industry from a colleague who was an institutional investor.
Which cannabis companies did you start trading and why?
I first found Medbox (MDBX), a company offering vending machines to dispense cannabis using biometric technology. I made a killing with it, and was hooked!
I bought it at $17 and then sold some of it at $96, then started to look for other cannabis stock opportunities.
I came across Futureland Corp (FUTL) through a coworker who was an institutional investor in solar and marijuana stocks. I researched FUTL, and really liked what I saw, a "grow to blow" company that owned not only the cannabis being cultivated, but everything in between. I think this is where the industry is going, but FUTL had the vision to plan for this right from the start."
At what point did you really start to heavily invest in FUTL stock?
Probably when I found out they were a local Florida company, I set up an interview with Cameron Cox and Sam Talari, the co-owners. I had prepared a detailed list of questions--in my research of cannabis publicly traded companies, I had found a lot of fly-by-night companies with no real idea of how to grow cannabis, much less sell it on a large scale.
However, upon meeting with Cox and Talari, I was surprised to hear that they had planned for every contingency, and had a concrete strategic plan in place.
I wanted to invest more heavily in their stock, but my wife insisted that I not use my IRA or savings. I decided to sell my 2009 Honda Shadow motorcycle, so I started talking to the guys at the OTC Powersports Bike Shop in Tampa, asking them if they might have a buyer.
They asked a lot of questions about why I was selling my 2009 Honda Shadow, so I started telling them about Futureland Corp. Before I knew it, they were totally on board with buying FUTL stock, but still a bit leery because of the ambiguous status of the industry.
I also was upset with the unfair treatment they were receiving on the InvestorsHub investment site, which is very biased towards clueless traders with no idea how to run a startup company, much less a newly legalized cannabis company. I felt that a more honest objective opinion was in order, so I reached out to offer my personal experience as a trader with FUTL stock.
Which stocks are you holding in your portfolio right now, and why?
In my IRA account, I own mostly Sprint stock that I made a killing on last year when Softbank President Masayoshi Son started buying it up, and the stock went through the roof. I had bought it at $3-4 and sold it at $14-15, so was very happy with the sudden jump in my account.
I also own 67,000 shares of Frontier stock that I bought at $1.92, but has dropped to $1.34, so I'm down about 70k right now. They are doing a reverse split in July, so at that point, I plan to get out, as I made some decent money.
On my self-directed account, I only own two stocks, Medbox (MDBX) and Futureland Corp (FUTL), 3% Medbox and 97% Futureland Corp. Medbox had a very unique offering, a cannabis vending machine using biometrics, so in principal the idea was genius. However, they were investigated by the SEC in 2014 for falsely reporting most of their income.
I still own 100 shares of Medbox (MDBX) that I bought back at $4 stock, as they have now changed their name to Notis (NGBL). They hired a new team of directors, and have gone in a completely new direction, planting hemp (non-THC cannabis) in Pueblo County, Colorado.
I strongly believe in Insert-tag-hereFutureland Corp's potential. Their only weakness is that they can't report a revenue stream at this point, but neither can many of these cannabis startups for that matter.
It doesn't help that the current administration is not cannabis-friendly and inconsistent in its messaging about cannabis. This does nothing to soothe the public's fears that the industry just can't seem to get going.
Cameron told me that one of his biggest pet peeves is that cannabis smokers are still perceived as a bunch of "stoner losers". When in fact, white collar professionals are coming home at night, roll a joint, and just relax, in place of a glass of wine.
I still have faith in Futureland Corp and can't wait to sell my motorcycle so I can take advantage of these very affordable prices to buy up a ton of FUTL stock. My advice to them is to stick with their plan, and wait for the rest of the industry to catch up.
Although the pioneer days of 1920s stock trading are long gone, some similarities exist with today's cannabis stock industry, the wild wild west of OTC stock trading.
Today, I'm profiling one of our stakeholders, Sal Tracey, a Florida-based military analyst by day and stock trader in between. Tracey joined the navy right after high school and spent two years in Washington DC working for Intergraph in Alexandria. He was introduced to investing while at NJVC, an IT services company for the defense industry. He started trading from his IRA account, learning the ropes with his company matching the funds, growing his account quickly.
He was then given the opportunity to have a self-directed brokerage account with Scottrade, so he started taking more risk, and trading in the small caps and OTC markets. This was where the fun began for Tracey, as he quickly learned the art of leveraging.
Tracey also learned some hard lessons too. He had invested a substantial sum in Washington Mutual (WAMU) stock in 2008, one of the leading sub-prime stocks to go under, and he almost lost everything. He kept trading, however, and soon got his rhythm back. In 2013, Tracey was introduced to the cannabis stock industry from a colleague who was an institutional investor.
Which cannabis companies did you start trading and why?
I first found Medbox (MDBX), a company offering vending machines to dispense cannabis using biometric technology. I made a killing with it, and was hooked!
I bought it at $17 and then sold some of it at $96, then started to look for other cannabis stock opportunities.
I came across Futureland Corp (FUTL) through a coworker who was an institutional investor in solar and marijuana stocks. I researched FUTL, and really liked what I saw, a "grow to blow" company that owned not only the cannabis being cultivated, but everything in between. I think this is where the industry is going, but FUTL had the vision to plan for this right from the start."
At what point did you really start to heavily invest in FUTL stock?
Probably when I found out they were a local Florida company, I set up an interview with Cameron Cox and Sam Talari, the co-owners. I had prepared a detailed list of questions--in my research of cannabis publicly traded companies, I had found a lot of fly-by-night companies with no real idea of how to grow cannabis, much less sell it on a large scale.
However, upon meeting with Cox and Talari, I was surprised to hear that they had planned for every contingency, and had a concrete strategic plan in place.
I wanted to invest more heavily in their stock, but my wife insisted that I not use my IRA or savings. I decided to sell my 2009 Honda Shadow motorcycle, so I started talking to the guys at the OTC Powersports Bike Shop in Tampa, asking them if they might have a buyer.
They asked a lot of questions about why I was selling my 2009 Honda Shadow, so I started telling them about Futureland Corp. Before I knew it, they were totally on board with buying FUTL stock, but still a bit leery because of the ambiguous status of the industry.
I also was upset with the unfair treatment they were receiving on the InvestorsHub investment site, which is very biased towards clueless traders with no idea how to run a startup company, much less a newly legalized cannabis company. I felt that a more honest objective opinion was in order, so I reached out to offer my personal experience as a trader with FUTL stock.
Which stocks are you holding in your portfolio right now, and why?
In my IRA account, I own mostly Sprint stock that I made a killing on last year when Softbank President Masayoshi Son started buying it up, and the stock went through the roof. I had bought it at $3-4 and sold it at $14-15, so was very happy with the sudden jump in my account.
I also own 67,000 shares of Frontier stock that I bought at $1.92, but has dropped to $1.34, so I'm down about 70k right now. They are doing a reverse split in July, so at that point, I plan to get out, as I made some decent money.
On my self-directed account, I only own two stocks, Medbox (MDBX) and Futureland Corp (FUTL), 3% Medbox and 97% Futureland Corp. Medbox had a very unique offering, a cannabis vending machine using biometrics, so in principal the idea was genius. However, they were investigated by the SEC in 2014 for falsely reporting most of their income.
I still own 100 shares of Medbox (MDBX) that I bought back at $4 stock, as they have now changed their name to Notis (NGBL). They hired a new team of directors, and have gone in a completely new direction, planting hemp (non-THC cannabis) in Pueblo County, Colorado.
I strongly believe in Insert-tag-hereFutureland Corp's potential. Their only weakness is that they can't report a revenue stream at this point, but neither can many of these cannabis startups for that matter.
It doesn't help that the current administration is not cannabis-friendly and inconsistent in its messaging about cannabis. This does nothing to soothe the public's fears that the industry just can't seem to get going.
Cameron told me that one of his biggest pet peeves is that cannabis smokers are still perceived as a bunch of "stoner losers". When in fact, white collar professionals are coming home at night, roll a joint, and just relax, in place of a glass of wine.
I still have faith in Futureland Corp and can't wait to sell my motorcycle so I can take advantage of these very affordable prices to buy up a ton of FUTL stock. My advice to them is to stick with their plan, and wait for the rest of the industry to catch up.
