The Easiest Way to Bet on US Cannabis Is This One ETF

12 hours ago 3

Trey Thoelcke

Wed, July 1, 2026 astatine 8:25 AM CDT 4 min read

Quick Read

MSOS delivers single-ticker U.S. cannabis vulnerability done total-return swaps, but lone ~15% of its assets are held successful nonstop cannabis equities.
Dan Ahrens describes MSOS arsenic a national argumentation bet, not a fundamentals play. The money is up 111% successful 1 twelvemonth but down 87% implicit five.
Curaleaf unsocial represents ~25% of MSOS assets, making the fund's 27-position diversification acold little protective than it appears.
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Owning idiosyncratic U.S. cannabis operators means wrestling with OTC-listed tickers, bladed liquidity, and a patchwork of authorities licenses that astir brokerage screeners hardly index. The AdvisorShares Pure US Cannabis ETF (NYSEARCA:MSOS) exists to illness that messiness into 1 ticker. For a retirement-skewing capitalist who wants a tiny speculative dose of the U.S. multi-state relation (MSO) commercialized without opening a peculiar OTC account, MSOS is the closest happening to a turnkey vehicle. The drawback is that the plumbing wrong MSOS is much exotic than a emblematic assemblage ETF, and the thrust has been brutal for anyone who bought it arsenic a semipermanent hold.

An illustration showing a businessman successful a suit riding a rollercoaster that winds done a cannabis processing instrumentality and past the US Capitol building.

What MSOS Actually Owns

Because cannabis remains federally illegal, MSOS cannot clasp shares of U.S. plant-touching operators directly. Instead, the money uses total-return swaps with counterparties, including Nomura and Cantor Fitzgerald, to replicate the economics of owning those stocks. The nonstop equity publication is smaller than astir holders realize: astir 15% of nett assets is successful cannabis equities, with the remainder successful short-term Treasury instruments and derivative exposure.

Concentration is the different headline. The apical 3 holdings (Curaleaf, Trulieve, and Green Thumb) harvester for astir 65% of nett assets. A BlackRock Treasury Trust presumption holds different 7%, providing liquidity for redemptions and swap collateral. Total money AUM (assets nether management) is astir $990 million, which is meaningful standard for a niche wrapper.

Does the Promise Match the Results?

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Performance depends wholly connected the window. Over the past year, MSOS is up astir 111%, from $2.41 to $5.08, driven by the president's December 2025 enforcement bid to statesman the process of rescheduling cannabis to Schedule III. Stretch the lens and the representation inverts: shares are down much than 87% implicit 5 years, meaning anyone who bought the 2021 highest inactive owns astir a dime connected the dollar.

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