What’s Really Happening With Cannabis ETF MSOS?
oday on Trade To Black presented by Flowhub, host Shadd Dales is teeing up a big conversation with Dan Ahrens of AdvisorShares, the portfolio manager behind the AdvisorShares Pure US Cannabis ETF (MSOS). The interview goes live at 4 PM Eastern, and the goal is simple: get answers to the questions investors have been asking for months.
A lot of cannabis investors still haven’t fully recovered from the December 18 pullback. Since then, the sector has struggled to regain momentum and many traders watching the tape believe something unusual has been happening around the MSOS ETF, especially around option expiries and large flow days. Whether it’s heavy volume without price movement, short interest shifting between MSOS and MSOX, or cannabis stocks moving together across the board, the questions from investors keep piling up.
Ahrens opens by noting that despite solid earnings from CuraLeaf, Green Thumb Industries, Trulieve, and Cresco Labs — all of which have also moved in recent weeks to clean up balance sheets and extend debt runways — the market has shown little response. The reason, he argued, is straightforward: this sector moves on Washington announcements, not fundamentals, and until Attorney General Pam Bondi signs off on rescheduling, earnings results are largely being ignored. He cautioned against paying attention to rumors about specific timelines, while affirming there is no credible information suggesting rescheduling is not coming.
We’ll dive into what rescheduling alone will and won’t accomplish. Ahrens emphasized that a rescheduling announcement will likely need to be accompanied by a DOJ guidance memo clarifying states’ rights to maintain adult-use markets, as well as some form of banking and FinCEN reform. Without that guidance, questions around up-listing, interstate commerce, and the dispensary model remain unanswered. He also noted that major custodians such as BNY, Morgan Stanley, UBS, and Bank of America Merrill all maintain formal written cannabis policies that won’t be unwound overnight, meaning institutional money will arrive gradually rather than immediately following a rescheduling announcement.
Among the other topics we’ll cover:
• Are institutions quietly positioning in cannabis again?
• What role do short sellers and options activity play in the sector’s volatility?
• How does the ETF creation process actually work?
• And what would it take to stabilize cannabis markets going forward?
With cannabis reform still looming and the market structure under the microscope, this conversation should give investors a clearer picture of what’s really happening behind the scenes.
