Verde Science Inc (OTCMKTS:VRCI): A Speculative Rumor Play?

Verde Science Inc (OTCMKTS:VRCI) has been a bit of strange stock over the last few months. Back in October, volume started to pick up, and the company went from trading low tens of thousands shares daily to millions across late October, and has since maintained this trend, with a little over 20 million shares trading hands in the few days leading up to the cannabis legalization ballots. Price per share rose as expected, and when overlaid on another stock in the space of similar size, the trend looks remarkably similar – slow rise into late October, rapid run up ahead of November 6-7, and then a correction post ballot.Pretty standard action, then.Well, not quite. The company has put out nothing in the way of press releases, there has been no news or update as to operations, and nothing has been filed with the SEC. Regulatory stuff aside, this has been the case for a year or so.The last real update came on November 27, 2015, when Verde announced some personal changes byway of PR, detailing the leaving of four key personnel, Manfred Schauer, Paul Pelosi Jr., Dr. Shantesh Hede, and Manit Patel from the company.A 10Q revealed a pretty dire financial situation shortly after, (more than $1 million debt, less than $1K cash, a ravaged capital structure) and that's essentially it.So, the question remains, why are people loading up on shares? Someone out there is buying, so who, and why?Well, there's a potential explanation, and it's rooted in the legalization ballot. That sort of goes without saying, but stick with us.The company, before it ducked under the radar, was focused on the development of cannabis based medical products, and was attempting to develop a portfolio of prescription based assets that it could distribute in states within which medical marijuana is (was, then) legal.Now, as illustrated by the above discussed, the team didn’t have any luck with this remit, but fast forward twelve months, and it's operating in a very different landscape to that at which it (effectively) shut its doors.The medical marijuana industry has derived huge benefit from recreational cannabis legalization (at least, that is, from a marketing perspective – chances are, in time, the latter will eat away at the former's market size) and if there was ever a time for Verde to start to generate some buzz about a potential pivot, this is it.The company gained close to 5000% between September and November on nothing, so there's definitely interest waiting to pull the trigger if anything comes around that gives them a reason to do so.So here's our take: we think that someone is loading up on this one, because they expect some big news to hit press. They’ve seen the company gain considerably on industry buzz alone, and this illustrates the potential for a high volume spike on any actual developments. These developments don't even really need to be a big deal – an announcement that the company is getting back underway in a particular focus would be enough – and the company should gain considerably.It's a very risky strategy, of course, and a speculative one. Taking a position now isn’t really based on anything other than the chart. That said, the chart looks good, despite essentially zero fundamental developments, and if someone somewhere is loading up, then they must know something we don't.We're going to keep our ear to the ground in an attempt to figure out what's going on, and to ensure we get ahead of the crowd if – and when – the news we expect hits the wire.We will be updating our subscribers as soon as we know more. For the latest updates on VRCI, sign up below!Disclosure: We have no position in VRCI and have not been compensated for this article.