Readers who track cannabis equities arrive from two distinct camps. The first camp follows bitcoin, ether along with smaller tokens that vaulted past twenty thousand dollars – thirty thousand – fifty thousand. Headlines about those surges pulled them toward articles that also mentioned marijuana listings. The second camp cares little for cryptocurrency; they arrive after a physician prescribes cannabidiol for arthritis, after a neighbor opens a dispensary, or after a grandchild mentions a job trimming flower. We predicted the first group correctly. We misjudged the second group by a wide margin.
Nevada, Florida in addition to Vermont readers click on cannabis equity stories more often than the national baseline. Census tables show that the median age in those states sits between forty-two and forty-seven. Retirees in Naples, Florida read about Green Thumb Industries after a golf partner describes a position. Snowbirds in Reno read about Curaleaf after a casino cashier hands over a printed receipt that smells faintly of terpenes. Vermont subscribers open newsletters on drafty porches, maple syrup steam drifting from the kitchen, eyes fixed on price charts for Tilray. Michigan next to Montana form the next tier. Michigan voters approved adult use sales in 2018. Montana followed in 2020. Hawaii allows only medical purchases yet still records elevated click through rates. Oregon, Kansas, Virginia readers scroll past cannabis headlines. Oregon legalized recreational sales in 2014. The novelty expired. Readers there now treat marijuana coverage like coverage of corn futures.
Vermont but also Nevada allow adult use possession. Nevada also licenses roulette wheels, blackjack tables along with slot machines. Florida permits only medical purchases. A common hypothesis claims that fresh legalization triggers a surge of investor curiosity – interest fades once shelves stock pre-rolls and gummies. Nevada besides Florida support the first half of that claim. Massachusetts in addition to Maine contradict it. All three states legalized adult use sales after 2016. Traffic to marijuana equity articles from those states sits below the national average. Washington or Oregon, early adopters, show lukewarm engagement. Alaska next to Colorado, pioneers since 2012, still deliver steady page views. Statutes change, headlines flare, yet reader curiosity does not march in lockstep with statute books.
We assumed that readers who parse stochastic oscillators, Bollinger bands next to Fibonacci retracements would swarm toward cannabis volatility. Balance-sheet statements from most marijuana issuers list revenue below one hundred million dollars. Net income lines remain blank. Price-to-earnings ratios therefore read as infinity. Day traders who quote bid ask spreads on the Turkish lira or the South African rand seldom open stories about Canadian licensed producers. Currency desks demand twenty-four-hour focus. Cannabis desks demand only a brokerage account and a pulse.
Readers who favor municipal bonds, utility shares, dividend aristocrats avoid marijuana coverage. That pattern suggested a youthful demographic. The data reversed the assumption. Fifty-seven percent of clicks arrive from readers older than thirty five. Eighteen- to twenty-four-year-olds click thirty five percent less often than the baseline. Forty-five- to sixty-year-olds click twenty five to thirty percent more often. Men generate seventy nine point seven percent of traffic. Women generate twenty point three percent. The industry remains adolescent. Equities trade on revenue projections instead of profits. Older investors, stereotyped as conservative, now chase the same speculative swings that twenty-year-olds ignore.
Crypto enthusiasts overlap only at the margins. When bitcoin crossed twenty thousand dollars in December 2017, page views for marijuana equities spiked in tandem. The age curve, however, diverges. A TD Ameritrade survey from September 2018 found that crypto traders cluster between twenty-five and thirty-four. Cannabis-equity readers cluster between forty-five and fifty-nine. ETF buyers add another wrinkle. The Horizons Marijuana Life Sciences Index ETF listed in Toronto. Assets under management crossed one billion Canadian dollars in July 2018. ETF buyers usually hold positions for years. They accept a management fee in exchange for diversification – they do not quote minute charts. Yet ETF articles rank among the most read marijuana topics on the site.
Alaska but also Colorado readers defy the fatigue hypothesis. Both states legalized recreational sales more than a decade ago. Page views remain elevated. Headlines in those states focus on quarterly earnings, on mergers, on federal rescheduling. Maine along with Massachusetts readers, surrounded by newly licensed stores, scroll past the same headlines. Curiosity peaks not at the moment of legalization but at the moment of portfolio construction.
