Growlife Inc (OTCBB:PHOT) Jumping Up And Down
September was an eventful month for medical marijuana penny stocks and as such, Growlife Inc (OTCBB:PHOT) has been a regular on our list of the most heavily traded OTC companies. There are some good reasons for the renewed interest in the cannabis industry.
First, at the beginning of last month, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s chief medical correspondent, admitted that he has been wrong all along and that weed can actually be used for medicinal purposes. Also at the beginning of September, the regulatory organs, more specifically, the Department of Justice said that they are taking on a more relaxed position towards the marijuana laws being adopted by more and more states and this further boosted the interest towards cannabis tickers.
Companies like Medical Marijuana Inc (OTCMKTS:MJNA), Hemp, Inc. (OTCMKTS:HEMP) and Tranzbyte Corp (OTCMKTS:ERBB) moved both up and down but when it comes to roller coaster rides, PHOT was in a class of its own.
During the first sessions of September, the ticker was hovering between $0.03 and $0.04. A few exciting days brought it up above the $0.06 mark, but the ascend was cut short when interest died down a bit and the price slid to around $0.045. During the last trading sessions of the month, PHOT went through something of a renaissance and between September 23 and September 30, it registered only one disappointing day. We are now at the threshold of a new month and most people are probably wondering if the wave-like pattern will continue.
Well, we can’t be sure, but it would appear that the answer is “yes”. Today’s opening bell rang less than an hour ago and the price is already around 8% below yesterday’s close. Of course, recovery by the end of the day is possible, but you would agree that the longer the ticker stays in the red, the greater the chance of people panicking is.
The peculiar thing is, all this comes just a couple of hours after PHOT announced that their website dedicated to medical cannabis is now fully up and running. What’s more, they managed to stick to their plan. In a press release from last week, they announced that they will launch the online portal on October 1 and they have kept their promise. So, what is causing the erratic chart movement?
Well, penny stocks’ inherent volatility can always be blamed. We’ve seen tickers that show a relatively high amount of long term potential like Sigma Labs Inc (OTCMKTS:SGLB), Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. (OTCMKTS:ACTC) and NanoTech Entertainment, Inc. (OTCMKTS:NTEK) display unexpected corrections with little or no warning, but even they tend to move up when the news is good whereas PHOT seems a bit reluctant to do so.
Normally, violent drops for no apparent reasons are witnessed when there’s a paid promotion, but in the case of PHOT, there doesn’t seem to be such a thing. You can see from our database that while there were a couple of emails over the last few months, most of them disclosed no compensation and it’s clear that they were all received well before the violent surges and the painful drops.
Yet, we can’t help but feel that there are some people raising awareness around the ticker. Many Twitter users are talking about PHOT and three Seeking Alpha articles appeared on the company’s Yahoo! Finance profile in September. All the coverages talk about the potential hidden in the ticker and the one that came out last Friday even says that PHOT is your best bet when it comes to recreational marijuana. None of the authors disclose any compensation for their optimism, but it’s clear that the effects on the stock are quite profound. We’re not sure that the outcome is all that positive though.
As we mentioned in some of our previous articles, only the future financial statements can give us a better idea of the potential for consistent growth in the longer run. In the meantime, PHOT remains a white-knuckle ride and it’s up to you to weigh the risks and decide whether you’re willing to jump on it.
