By Lorimer Wilson, munKNEE.com 

In an recent article (see here) I identified 12 cannabis or cannabis-related ETFs suggesting that such an approach to investing in the burgeoning marijuana sector was the best way to go. That being said, not all such ETFs perform equally well given their constituents and below is the performance of each in September ranked from best (-2.5%) to the worst (-18.5%).

1. Advisor Shares VICE ETF (Nasdaq:ACT) -2.5%

ACT believes that investing in select alcohol and tobacco companies and restaurant/entertainment businesses will provide continued growth and long-term performance across all types of market environments and that the 51.6% of cannabis-related companies in the ETF will provide considerable upside potential to complement the historically resilient characteristics of alcohol and tobacco.

The ETF:

• is actively managed,
• has an expense ratio of 0.75%,
• a very respectable beta of 0.76
• and is broadly diversified with its 30 constituents (see constituents here) allocated as follows:
  • Cannabis related: 30.3%
  • Alcohol: 24.0%
  • Restaurant & Entertainment: 16.1%
  • Tobacco with cannabis exposure: 13.7%
  • Alcohol with cannabis exposure: 7.6%
  • Tobacco: 8.2%

ACT was the best performing marijuana/marijuana-related ETF during the month of September, declining "only" 2.5% (versus -3.5% in August). 

2. Evolve U.S. Marijuana ETF (NEO:USMJ) -7.4%

USMJ was the first ETF to invest in the U.S. marijuana industry and is:

• actively managed,
• consists of 39 constituents (see list here) from the U.S. (51.29%) and Canada (44.34%) with the remaining 4.27% headquartered in the U.K. and elsewhere. It is slightly diversified in that 12.16% are involved in ancillary-related businesses with 43.25% being large cap and 42.75% in emerging businesses.
• has an expense ratio of 0.75% and
• has a beta of 1.8.

USMJ was launched in April of this year and is listed on NEO, the relatively new Canadian exchange. In August the ETF declined 10.2%.

Below is the September performance of the remaining 10 marijuana ETFs in descending order:

1. Amplify Seymour CNBS Cannabis ETF (NYSE:CNBS) -9.9% (active management)
2. Cambria Marijuana Industry Fund ETF (CBOE:TOKE) -10.4% (active mgmt)
3. Horizons Emerging Marijuana Growers ETF (NEO:HMJR) -10.5% (passive mgmt) 
4. ETFMG Alternative Harvest ETF (NYSE:MJ) -10.6% (passive mgmt)
5. Purpose Marijuana Opportunities ETF (NEO:MJJ) -11.0% (active mgmt)
6. Horizons Marijuana Life Sciences ETF (TSX:HMMJ) -12.5% (passive mgmt)
7. Evolve Marijuana Fund ETF (TSX:SEED) -12.6% (active mgmt)
8. Innovation Shares The Cannabis ETF (NYSE:THCX) -12.7% (passive mgmt)
9. Advisor Shares Pure Cannabis ETF (NYSE:YOLO) -13.0% (active mgmt)
10. Horizons US Marijuana Index ETF (NEO:HMUS) -18.5% (passive mgmt)

For the record, below is how the 2 actively managed leveraged marijuana ETFs fared in September:

• Horizons Beta Pro Marijuana 2X Daily Bull ETF (TSX:HMJU) -24.0%
• Horizons Beta Pro Marijuana Inverse ETF (TSX:HMJI) +8.7%

In summary, the average marijuana/marijuana-related ETF (excluding the 2 leveraged ETFs mentioned above) was down 10.3% in September.