Two of the most important qualities to succeed in the stock market are patience and good timing. Patience is important to help investors through tough times, and good timing is essential for investors to know when to pull the trigger on a purchase or a sale.

Those who have invested in Aphria Inc (TSX:APHA)(NYSE:APHA) — and stuck with it through the drama it has experienced over the past nine months — have certainly shown a great deal of patience. However, for those investors on the outside looking in, is now a good time to pull the trigger?

After a red-hot start to the year, marijuana stocks have been steadily retreating over the past two months. Weaker-than-expected earnings from some of the top players and over-the-top valuations have taken a hefty toll on the industry of late. 

Cannabis stocks had a tough start to the week, with more lossese on Tuesday across North American markets.

The North American Marijuana Index, which tracks the top cannabis stocks in the US and Canada, dropped 1.2% to 229.4 points on Tuesday. The Horizons Marijuana Life Sciences Index ETF was down 1.1% to C$17.7. The OTCQX Cannabis Index slipped 2% at 709.6 points.

Buds

Martello Technologies Group Inc (CVE:MTLO) (OTCMKTS:DRKOF) stock continued to soar Tuesday, up 21.8% at C$0.95 in Toronto, up 39.3% at US$0.71. 

The global cannabis market is no doubt an exciting one, and there are many companies auditioning for your investment dollars. Cannabis stocks range from penny stocks to multi-billion-dollar global companies, so there's quite a lot to choose from when thinking about how to play the space.

Cannabis stocks fell across the board Tuesday, led by CannTrust Holdings Inc. in its continued response to the news that the Canadian regulator has seized its cannabis after finding it was growing in unlicensed rooms.

BMO Capital Markets became the latest house to downgrade the stock, lowering it to market perform from outperform.

“It is unclear how the company would have commenced cultivation in unlicensed rooms and we are surprised by this development and the inability of CannTrust’s internal operational controls to prevent this,” analysts Tamy Chen and Peter Sklar wrote in a note to clients.

TruTrace Technologies Inc (CSE:TTT) (OTC:TTTSF) is weaving in cannabis testing facility A&L Canada Labs to its medical cannabis verification pilot program with Shoppers Drug Mart.

A&L Canada Labs will be one of the inaugural testing facilities at Shoppers locations. The program is built around TruTrace’s StrainSecure platform, which can verify the origin, authenticity and quality assurance of cannabis products.

If you’ve been a frequent reader of my articles, you’ll know that I’ve long been bullish on two marijuana penny stocks in particular: HEXO Corp (NYSEAMERICAN:HEXO) and OrganiGram Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:OGI).

Investors who have been following my stock reporting since the beginning may have seen huge gains that doubled or even tripled their money. But lately, these marijuana penny stocks have had a tougher time of it.

As can be seen above, year-to-date these stocks have been very strong indeed. Both HEXO stock and OGI stock are up big in the first half of 2019. But it’s also impossible to miss that since the summer began in June, these companies have taken a beating.

On July 3, Horizons completed its quarterly rebalance of the Horizons Marijuana Life Sciences Index ETF (TSX:HMMJ).

In the recent rebalancing, the ETF expanded to include 10 more companies.

Today we have picked out four cannabis stocks that were added to the HMMJ that could benefit most from this inclusion.

Smiths Falls, Ontario-based Canopy Growth (NYSE:CGC) is, in many ways, the epicenter of the legal marijuana industry. Despite the steady decline in its share price since the legalization of adult-use recreational marijuana in Canada last October, the company is still the only borderline large-cap company in the industry, as well as the market share leader in terms of annual sales. Canopy also sports the richest tie-up with a noncannabis company through its roughly $5 billion CAD equity investment from alcoholic beverage giant Constellation Brands (NYSE:STZ). 

On a broad scale, the marijuana industry has been mostly unstoppable for years. Canada has become the first industrialized country in the world to legalize recreational cannabis, while 33 U.S. states have given the green light to medical marijuana (11 of which also allow adult-use consumption). These ongoing legalization efforts, and the expectation of organic growth in legalized countries/states, is what's fueled the march higher in marijuana stocks.