iAnthus Capital Holdings Inc (ITHUF)

[Longerboard]

The shorts are in and out each day, they are not holding their positions and therefore have no risk. Take a look at daily short report...
https://www.otcshortreport.com/company/ITHUF. Consistent huge short volume, over 55% on wednesday, 40% yesterday, yet the variance in monthly outstanding short is very low, a few % points. Since retail (ie, people on this board) can't short ITHUF, who is shorting every day?? Wednesday the stock traded between 1.90 and 1.70, 600,000 were shorted and very few of the shares were held overnight. In rough numbers, the Little Shop of Shorts (LSS) using its AI shorts 600,000, covers 500,000 and retail customers sell 100,000. The AI balances the LSS short positions continuously, so in this 24 hour period, it makes 20,000 or $5.2M annualized. If shorting 20 little stocks, that's a nice risk free business at the expense of the retail investor. It would be more fair if the retail investor could short as easily as LSS. Call up your broker and tell her you want to short ITHUF right now and see what the response is. Sorry, I no can do!

As I mentioned after the last earnings call, I took a big loss and sold all my shares at 2.55 because the info looked a lot like the opaque results from the previous earnings report. It is not uncommon for companies in high growth nascent industries to become overly exuberant, then pay the price when reality doesn't match the hype. In hindsight, reality suggests ITHUF paid way too much for MPX and ITHUF cash flow is being pressured. Reality is ITHUF just closed a 9% hard money funding. I am sure Hadley is a smart, nice guy with bonafides on wall street, but how does this translate to guiding a business through predictably turbulent waters? For starters, I am sure the folks on this board would agree, he needs to stop selling ITHUF and start buying meaningful quantities to add to the shares he was awarded.

Nobody has an accurate crystal ball. Mine has been recalibrated many times, but it appears the market is saying:

* ITHUF paid too much for MPX and will have to take a big hit on the balance sheet goodwill which hits earnings.
* The pot business is not developing as rapidly as the exuberant forecasts, which is reflected in the cost of capital of the most recent deal.
* The shorts are still in charge.
* Most companies have best case, average case, and worst case forecasts. Market is pricing in worst case and perhaps ITHUF should take notice and make prudent adjustments.

IMO, over time pot will become as legal and available as booze. So, it is just a matter of timing. If a company's timing is off, it will become roadkill, while those companies that thread the needle will soar. When will the feds decriminalize pot? Over the last year, it appears to me that timeline has lengthened which is reflected in ITHUF share price. If this is true, hopefully ITHUF can hold on long enough and soar. The ITHUF accumulated assets are going to produce huge returns sometime in the future for someone, hopefully for the current retail investors.