Cannabis stocks are down 20%, on average, YTD but there are 11 stocks in munKNEE.com's Pot Stock Index that are UP 35.8%, on average, YTD, This article identifies these hidden gems and how well they have done over the past 7 months.

The pot stock universe has 400+ cannabis-related securities listed on the various Canadian and American stock exchanges of which approx. 300 actively trade. Of those 300 only 25 (that's just 8% of the total) fulfill the criteria for inclusion in the Pot Stock Index of being pure-play* cannabis companies (i.e derive 100% of their revenue from the sale of cannabis or cannabis-related products) whose stocks consistently trade for at least US$1/share.

The 11 winners YTD (i.e. as of July 31st) are as follows, in descending order:

1. Rubicon (ROMJF) +53.8%
2. TerrAscend (TRSSF) +46.6%
3. cbdMD (YCBD) +46.0%
4. Planet 13 (PLNHF) +43.4%
5. Green Thumb (GTBIF) +37.5%
6. Trulieve (TCNNF) +36.8%
7. Columbia (CCHWF) +35.7%
8. Curaleaf (CURLF) +33.8%
9. Jushi (JUSHF) +30.4%
10. Greenlane (GNLN) +18.4%
11. Neptune (NEPT) +1.5%

The fact that these stocks are up YTD suggests that the companies are well managed, well-financed, and executing their respective business plans in such a manner as to have the confidence of serious marijuana stock investors and, as such, they deserve your attention.

Interestingly, 8 of the 11 top performers YTD are in the American Multi-State Operators (MSOs) Category; 1 (Rubicon) is in the Vertically Integrated (Seed-to-Sale) Category of Canadian Licensed Producers (LPs), 1 (Greenlane) is in the Consumption Devices Category and 1 (Neptune) is in the Extraction Processor/Marketer Category.

Further details regarding the equal-weighted pure-play index are as follows:

• *Unlike every marijuana ETF (see this TalkMarkets article for details) and every other cannabis tracking index (see this TalkMarkets article for details), the PSI inclusion criteria excludes those "wanna-be" marijuana companies who generate little, if any, of their total revenue from the cannabis industry so as to reflect the true health of the marijuana industry in the U.S. and Canada. (See this TalkMarkets article for the specific sectors excluded.)
• The official definition of a "penny" stock is one that trades below US$5/share but, when it comes to pot stocks, that is where 92% of the total universe trades, so the more literal definition of stocks that trade for less than US$1/share is used.
• The market capitalization of the 25 constituents in the PSI is US$962.8M, on average.

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