Nine new cannabis stocks have been added to Canada’s largest marijuana-focused exchange-traded fund, giving investors access to a broader basket of stocks in the fast-growing market.

The ETF adjusts its fund holdings on a quarterly basis, although the weightings of individual stocks can fluctuate more frequently.

Last Friday, Horizons ETFs Management (Canada) Inc. confirmed it had expanded the holdings of Toronto-listed Horizons Marijuana Life Sciences Index ETF (HMMJ) to include Tilray Inc., one of the most volatile marijuana stocks the industry has seen. Tilray holds the largest weighting of the new additions, at 6.6 per cent, as of Sept 24. That’s up from 3.68 per cent on Friday, when the company was first added to the ETF.

Legal marijuana sales will kick off in Canada on Oct. 17, and a shocking amount of early money will potentially flow into the country.

From Oct. 17 until the end of the year, Statistics Canada expects the country's legal cannabis sales to soar as high as $1.02 billion.

And that's just the start of how much money will be spent on cannabis in Canada.

Canadians spent $4.8 billion on illegal marijuana purchases in Q2, according to High Times. As more dispensaries open and more legal marijuana is sold, money in the black market will flood into the legal market.

So even though $1.02 billion is an impressive number, this early look at sales could be too conservative of an estimate…

A cannabis company backed by the retail fortune of Ohio’s Schottenstein family has raised about US$65 million as it prepares to be publicly traded in Canada.

Green Growth Brands, which is run by former Victoria’s Secret and American Eagle Outfitters Inc. executive Peter Horvath, has purchased an existing marijuana operation in the Las Vegas area and is looking to get licenses to operate in Massachusetts, Florida and New Jersey. The new funding round included investments from the Schottensteins and Horvath, and precedes a stock listing in Canada in coming weeks through a reverse takeover.

With less than a month for the legalization of recreational cannabis in Canada to take effect, investors continue to closely watch the pot stocks in the country. Namaste Technologies, (CVE:N), a leading online cannabis retailer, is one of the many cannabis stocks that have witnessed a surge in its stock price over the last one year in the anticipation of the revolutionary move. The company, which currently sells only vaporizers and other accessories for consumption of medical cannabis, plans to enter the recreational cannabis space through its partnerships with various Licensed Producers (LPs) in Canada and abroad. However, some of the key provinces in Canada have recently chosen Shopify as their partner to facilitate online and in-store sales of recreational cannabis.

The Horizons Marijuana Life Sciences Index (TSX:HMMJ) is an Exchange Traded Fund that is designed to provide investors with diversified exposure to North American publicly-listed companies with specific emphasis on companies involved in the cannabis industry. HMMJ includes 50 stocks, with Aurora Cannabis (TSX:ACB), Canopy Growth (TSX:WEED), and Aphria Inc.

Aurora Cannabis, the second-largest marijuana producer by market cap, reported a surprise profit on Tuesday as the company eyes a US stock listing.

For its fiscal fourth quarter, Aurora earned 0.40 Canadian dollars, easily beating the 0.03 Canadian dollars loss that analysts surveyed by Bloomberg were expecting. Revenue more than doubled from the same quarter last year, coming in at 19.1 million Canadian dollars, missing the 23 million Canadian dollars that was expected. Aurora, which trades in Toronto and is tracked via an over-the-counter (OTC) ticker in the US, rose more than 9% in trading Tuesday following the release.

The rise of Canadian cannabis stocks over the past three years is nothing short of stunning, and investors who missed the rally to this point are wondering which companies might be attractive for long-term potential gains.

Let’s take a look at HEXO (TSX:HEXO) and Aurora Cannabis (TSX:ACB) to see if one might be an interesting pick right now.

The Ontario government under Premier Doug Ford plans to privatize the retail sales of marijuana once it becomes legal next month, in contrast to the policy of the previous provincial government.

With the legalization date of marijuana in Canadainching closer and closer, talks of exactly how Canadians will be able to get their hands on the newly legalized drug have gotten louder. Especially considering that the province of Ontario recently decided to switch their plan and make the whole distribution of the drug privatized.

That's right, after recent changes by premier Doug Ford, only Ontario Cannabis Store branches explicitly backed by the province will be able to sell the drug over the counter. Meaning plans concerning the LCBO and Shopify have been axed for the time being.

Licensed marijuana producer Aurora Cannabis Inc. says it is "unequivocally" ready for the legalization of recreational pot in Canada next month, with enough supply to meet all its commitments to provinces and territories.

Aurora's chief corporate officer Cam Battley adds that the cannabis firm doesn't foresee the need for supply agreements with other licensed producers to bridge inventory gaps.

"We've got all of our product categories ready," he told analysts on a conference call discussing its latest quarterly earnings on Tuesday.

"So, we're more than ready for consumer legalization. And more than that, our ramp-up in production is happening at exactly the right time. We're not going to be dumping old, stockpiled, stale product on the market."