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But they were all extremely volatile and plunged on Wednesday as well, a classic case of investors buying the rumor and selling the news.
"Moment" for marijuana
Michael Gorenstein, CEO of Cronos, would not comment when CNN's Julia Chatterley, on the First Move broadcast on Wednesday, asked if Cronos was looking to partner with a larger company.
But he said legalization in Canada is a "watershed moment" for the industry and he expects the legalization of marijuana to be of greater interest.
"It makes so much sense, it sends a blow, and we are seeing winds that are contrary to regulation around the world," Gorenstein said.
"Things are moving faster than many people think," said Kovacevich, noting that several polls showed Democrats could take control of the House in the upcoming mid-term elections.
If this happens, Kovacevich thinks that there could be more progress in amending federal cannabis laws.
Others think that the hype becomes exaggerated.
Andrew Left, founder of Citron Research, also appeared on CNN's First Move broadcast Wednesday and said he was betting against many cannabis stocks because he thought marijuana would not not a multibillion dollar industry that many are waiting for.
"There is a huge difference between being excited about an idea and being able to invest in it," said Left. "Yes, cannabis will bring in money, but it's not the technological boom, it's a much smaller pie."
Ken Mahoney, the CEO of Mahoney Asset Management, agreed. He compared the marijuana craze to what happened with the dot-com stock in the late 1990s. That did not end well for a lot of speculative stocks that are trying to hang on to the internet wave.
But Mahoney said finding more easily what is known as "picks and shovels" in the industry – companies that take advantage of the cannabis trend but are not producers – makes more sense.
"It's crazy to choose individual companies selling marijuana, so do not rely on companies that can benefit from the general trend of legal cannabis but have diversification," he said. Mahoney likes KushCo, for example.
Beware of the "green rush"
Paul Rosen, co-founder of Cronos and today CEO of Tidal Royalty, a company that invests in cannabis companies based in the United States, agreed that there would be good investment opportunities.
But he told CNN Business that investors needed to look carefully at the balance sheets of cannabis companies.
Rosen said that the cannabis cultivation industry requires a lot of capital and that the so-called "green fever" of arousal about marijuana stocks has led to extremely high and unsustainable valuations. Some businesses will inevitably collapse and burn.
He joked that all businesses can not become the Google of cannabis. Some will be Ask Jeeves.
"We're actually selling a product that people want to buy, it's not selling domain names," Cobb said.
