The cannabis industry hasn't even boomed yet. I mean it's just starting to a little bit, but once full legalization happens, forget about it. It's gonna be a fantastic opportunity to make a lot of money, so I'm trying to get in at the ground floor.
My suggestion, based on the Canadian experience: consider cashing out after legalization has been passed into law (or as soon as it is a sure thing that it will pass into law) but before it actually happens. The legal market is hyper-competitive and profit margins are slim. Consider
this index of Canadian cannabis stocks (look at the ten-year chart), with the following dates in mind:
- the House passed cannabis legalization on Nov 27th, 2017, meaning that legalization was very likely but not certain (the Senate rarely votes down House-passed legislation in Canada)
- the Senate passed cannabis legalization on June 19th, 2018, meaning that legalization was 100% going to happen
- Cannabis opened the legal market on October 18th, 2018
I just watched a few videos about trading options. Kind of a strange concept, but I'm getting the impression people make a ton of money with them. Does anyone have any direction in terms of where I should go to learn about it? Recommended, or stick to direct stock ownership?
I've heard a lot of recommendations for
Tastytrade, which has free courses on options, although I haven't tried it.
Investopedia is always useful.
Options can be high-risk, high-reward, especially if traded WallStreetBets-style (i.e. deep out-of-the-money calls near expiry) as they are more leveraged than stock. However, there are also low-risk, low-reward strategies with options, as well as
ways to simply lower your cost basis (although even here there is always some additional risk) for stocks you like.
I would recommend reading quite a bit before deciding whether to jump in, as unlike with long stock positions, maximum losses in many situations can be infinite and trades have to be managed very carefully so as not to put yourself in a position where you could owe far more money than you have in your account.
I think most people would suggest that you're best off getting into a few well-known, diversified ETFs (e.g. one for U.S. equity, one for international equity, and one for U.S. bonds) and that few people will beat these in the long run. Personally I'm trying my hand at options more because I find it engaging than because I'm confident I can beat the market, so if it's something that you find engaging as well it may be worth it for you to try your hand at it. But be careful!