The Financial Post reports in its Wednesday edition that Aurora Cannabis, the second-largest cannabis company by market value, missed its own revenue target and posted a loss last week despite an earlier promise that it would be profitable by the quarter ended June 30. A Bloomberg dispatch to the Post says that the ensuing sell-off was further confirmation that investors are getting fed up with money-losing pot companies. Weaker-than-expected quarterly results from some of the biggest names in cannabis have contributed to the recent slump in stocks, with the BI Global Cannabis Competitive Peers index down about 40 per cent from its 2019 high on March 21. The decline has been lucrative for one group, at least: short-sellers. Positions in the 20 most-shorted pot stocks have made $-1.17-billion (U.S.) so far in the third quarter. S3 Partners pointed to Aurora as one of the top candidates for a short squeeze if the stock begins to rally -- and a rally may already be under way. Eight Capital technical analyst Tina Normann found that the beta of cannabis stocks has recently spiked to around 2.0 from a range of 1.4 to 1.6, meaning they are likely to post outsized moves in whatever direction the market is heading.
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