Skip to content
All posts

SOTM Update 2025-11-24

Picture of AdvisorShares By   ·  3 minute read
Today's Stocks on the Move is for PSIL – AdvisorShares Psychedelics ETF and its holdings in Quantum Biopharm (QNTM) and VistaGen Therapeutics (VTGN). 
 
Quantum Biopharma Ltd. (QNTM):   1.54%
  • Recent news: Quantum Biopharma Ltd.’s shares have traded with elevated volatility, reflecting investor sensitivity to pipeline progress and funding in the emerging psychedelic and neuro-biopharma space. With a relatively small market cap and negative earnings, the stock trades as a high-beta vehicle on trial milestones, regulatory signals, and deal activity, offering meaningful upside but also substantial drawdown risk.
  • ​Why it matters for PSIL: QNTM aligns directly with PSIL’s mandate to invest in companies deriving a majority of their value from psychedelic and adjacent neuropsychiatric therapeutics. Its early-stage, high-volatility profile provides PSIL with option-like exposure to breakthrough data or partnerships, which is central to the fund’s strategy of harnessing asymmetric returns in a still-nascent psychedelic medicines ecosystem.​

VistaGen Therapeutics Inc. (VTGN):  6.35%

  • Recent news: VistaGen Therapeutics is approaching key earnings and clinical catalysts, with analysts watching upcoming updates on its central nervous system (CNS) disorders treatment and mental health pipeline, including late-stage assets. The company has attracted significant institutional ownership and maintains a suite of clinical-stage candidates that target anxiety and other neuropsychiatric conditions, though it remains loss-making as it advances trials.
  • Why it matters for PSIL: VTGN is one of PSIL’s higher-conviction positions, giving the ETF scaled exposure to innovative CNS therapeutics that sit adjacent to or overlap with psychedelic-inspired mechanisms. Its rich catalyst calendar and leveraged sensitivity to positive data fit PSIL’s goal of concentrating in names where clinical success can materially re-rate valuations and drive portfolio-level upside in the mental health and psychedelic therapeutics arena.

 

Data as of 11/23/2025. Holdings subject to change. For a list of PSIL's holdings, click here.

— For Institutional Investor Use Only. Not for Public Distribution —
 
Before investing you should carefully consider the Fund’s investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. This and other information is in the prospectus and summary prospectus, a copy of which may be obtained by visiting the Fund’s website at www.AdvisorShares.com. Please read the prospectus carefully before you invest. Foreside Fund Services, LLC, distributor.
 
There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve its investment objective. An investment in the Fund is subject to risk, including the possible loss of principal amount invested.   
 
Psychedelic drugs, also known as hallucinogens, are a group of substances, including psilocybin, that are used to change and enhance sensory perceptions, thought processes, and energy levels. Psychedelic medicines, therapeutics, and healthcare treatments may be used in the treatment of illnesses such as depression, addiction, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. Psychedelic medicine companies include life sciences companies having significant business activities in, or significant exposure to, the psychedelics industry including producers or distributors of psychedelic medicines, biotechnology companies engaged in research and development of psychedelic medicines, and companies that are part of the supply chain for psychedelics.   
     
Psychedelics Companies Risk. Psychedelics companies are subject to various laws and regulations that may differ at the state/local and federal level. These laws and regulations may significantly affect a psychedelics company’s ability to secure financing, impact the market for psychedelics and business sales and services, and set limitations on psychedelics use, production, transportation, and storage. There can be no guarantees that such approvals or administrative actions will happen or be favorable for psychedelics companies, and such actions may be subject to lengthy delays, and may require length and expensive clinical trials. Additionally, therapies containing controlled substances may generate public controversy. Political and social pressures and adverse publicity could lead to delays in approval of, and increased expenses for, companies and any future therapeutic candidates they may develop. All of these factors and others may prevent psychedelics companies from becoming profitable, which may materially affect the value of certain Fund investments. In addition, psychedelics are subject to the risks associated with the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. 
   
In Canada, certain psychedelic drugs, including psilocybin, are classified as Schedule III drugs under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (“CDSA”) and, as such, medical and recreational use is illegal under Canadian federal laws. In the United States, certain psychedelic drugs, including psilocybin, are classified as Schedule I drugs under the Controlled Substances Act (“CSA”) and the Controlled Substances Import and Export Act (the “CSIEA”) and, as such, medical and recreational use is illegal under the U.S. federal laws. There is no guarantee that psychedelic drugs or psychedelic-inspired drugs will ever be approved as medicines in either jurisdiction.   
   
In the United States, scheduling determinations by the Drug Enforcement Agency (“DEA”) are dependent on Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) approval of a substance or a specific formulation of a substance. Unless and until psilocybin, psilocin, or other psychedelics-based products receive FDA approval, such products may be prohibited from sale, which could limit the growth opportunities for certain portfolio companies of the Fund. Even if approved by the FDA, the manufacture, importation, exportation, domestic distribution, storage, sale, and legitimate use of such products will continue to be subject to a significant degree of regulation by the DEA. 
 
Security prices of small cap companies may be more volatile than those of larger companies and therefore the Fund’s share price may be more volatile than those of funds that invest a larger percentage of their assets in securities issued by larger-cap companies. These risks are even greater for micro-cap companies.   
 AIL-XXXX-XXXX