Article content

Multiple retail investors say that one of Canada’s largest banks is no longer allowing them to short cannabis stocks directly through its self-directed brokerage.

The Financial Post spoke with four retail investors who said they placed calls to the Bank of Montreal’s InvestorLine brokerage in an attempt to either open a short position on a cannabis company or inquire about how to do so between Friday and Wednesday morning and were turned away by traders.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or BMO no longer allowing cannabis stocks to be shorted, retail investors say Back to video

Each of the four InvestorLine clients, who did not wish to be named, said BMO traders would not open short positions on the particular cannabis stock they were interested in. When they asked if that applied to the sector as a whole, they said they were told shorting would not be possible for any cannabis stock.

One of the four also attempted to open a short position on InvestorLine’s online platform, but said that the order was cancelled minutes later in a phone call from an InvestorLine representative.