While basic investing wisdom advises us to “buy low,” no point is low enough when there’s hardly any hope that a stock will bounce back. In other words, no matter how much a company lags the market, sometimes it still isn’t attractive.

In my view, that’s the case with Teladoc Health (TDOC 5.89%) and Tilray Brands (TLRY 14.15%), both of which have lost more than 90% of their market value over the past five years. Their stocks still aren’t worth buying, though. Here’s what investors need to know about these companies.

1. Teladoc Health

Teladoc, a telemedicine specialist, experienced a surge in popularity in 2020, as people were confined to their homes and had limited options for accessing medical care. Patients can access basic consultations, prescriptions, and referrals through telemedicine platforms. Teladoc helped provide that, but the company’s fortunes turned in 2021. Demand for its services declined as government-imposed lockdown measures expired. The company also experienced consistent, and sometimes significant, net losses.

Furthermore, BetterHelp, Teladoc’s virtual therapy service and one of its main growth drivers during this period, also started facing challenges. BetterHelp encountered stiff competition, which ate into its market share. Due to all these issues, Teladoc’s revenue has been growing very slowly — if at all — for the past few quarters, and the company remains unprofitable.

Teladoc is looking to turn things around. One bright spot in the company’s recent financial results has been its international expansion efforts. International revenue has been growing at a faster rate than in the rest of its business. If it can continue setting roots in countries outside the U.S., it could exploit meaningful growth opportunities there, or so the argument goes.

Since the company’s ecosystem remains deep — with approximately 102 million integrated-care members — Teladoc also hopes that it can grow revenue by cross-selling additional products to its existing members.

While these plans sound good in theory, it’s doubtful that Teladoc can pull them off. The telehealth specialist’s efforts abroad might increase its already high expenses and make it harder for the company to turn profitable. And while cross-selling more products to existing members might be a great idea, Teladoc has failed to make meaningful progress in the past few years through this route.

Maybe the company will eventually turn that around, but there’s little reason to believe it will. The stock looks likely to remain southbound for some time, which is why it’s best to avoid it.

2. Tilray Brands

Tilray is a leader in the cannabis industry. The company offers a suite of products across both recreational and medical channels in Canada, the U.S., Germany, and several other countries. In Canada, Tilray still has the leading market share.

However, none of that has allowed the company to perform well in recent years. It’s not entirely Tilray’s fault, since the cannabis industry faces significant regulatory challenges in the U.S.; the substance remains illegal at the federal level. Even in Canada, where medical and recreational uses of cannabis are legal, there have been challenges for the business, including oversupply.

Although Tilray has the leading market share in Canada, the landscape has been challenging enough that it hasn’t been able to grow its top and bottom lines consistently.

In fairness, Tilray is now a fairly diversified company. It has expanded its craft brewing business, and also purchases and resells various pharmaceutical products in Germany through its distribution segment. The final business unit, “wellness,” involves the production and sale of hemp-based foods.

That said, diversification has had little impact on improving Tilray’s financial results. So the company continues to rely on potential regulatory progress in the cannabis market. CEO Irwin Simon thinks recreational uses of cannabis will be legal in the U.S. by the end of President Donald Trump’s second term. That’s one reason the company expanded its craft brewing business in the U.S. through acquisition — so it can sell drinks infused with THC and CBD when that happens.

Tilray hopes that once legalization lands, it will be able to hit the ground running and dominate the markets for both recreational cannabis and cannabis-infused drinks, thanks to its existing footprint. However, there’s no guarantee that this scenario will materialize anytime soon. While Tilray’s shares recently soared on news that Trump could reclassify marijuana from a Schedule I substance to Schedule III, that’s some ways away from federal legalization.

It would be progress, to be clear. Schedule I drugs are considered to have the highest potential for abuse; that’s not the case for Schedule III substances. However, marijuana would remain a controlled substance, still subject to heavy regulations at the federal level. But even under Simon’s best-case scenario — not just rescheduling but full-blown legalization — we learned from our neighbors to the north that it’s no guarantee of success for cannabis players.

Tilray could encounter many of the same issues it faced in Canada. These included an initially complicated retail licensing system, stiff competition, and oversupply. In short, there’s little hope that Tilray can bounce back anytime soon. The stock isn’t worth investing in today.

If you have followed traditional markets, you might have heard the phrase, “Don’t fight the Fed.” It’s been a long guiding principle in conventional markets, suggesting that traders should align their strategies with the Federal Reserve’s policy, as the central bank’s actions significantly influence the direction of asset markets.

Recently, a variation of that mantra emerged on X after popular altcoin enthusiast Gordon said, “Never fade Eric Trump,” referring to positive price action in the wake of Eric Trump’s Feb. 25 post encouraging crypto market participants to “buy the dips.”

Gordon’s post came as the total crypto market bounced 11% to $3.09 trillion on March 2, almost reversing the decline seen in the last week of February. The double-digit rise, spurred by President Donald Trump’s mention of ADA, XRP, andSOL as candidates of strategic crypto reserve with BTC and ETH as core, validated his son, Eric Trump’s, bias for dip buying.

Therefore, retail traders, especially those looking to make quick profits from day trading or short-term trading, may be tempted to strictly follow Eric Trump’s posts. However, it’s important to reconsider, as data reveals that Eric’s tweets are not necessarily profitable for speculators and day traders.

To start with, the market bounce seen on March 2 was extremely short-lived, as the total crypto market capitalization collapsed to $2.78 trillion on the very next day and slipped further to $2.6 trillion on Sunday.

Eric Trump’s two other takes published on X since his father Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20 also did little for day traders.

The first one, dated Feb. 4, said, “In my opinion, it’s a great time to add ETH.”

That day, Ethereum’s native token ether traded above $2,700, having recovered from a sudden crash to nearly $2,000 the day before. The quick recovery was reminiscent of the August bottom around the same levels, following which the token’s price rose to $4,000 in the subsequent months.

However, ether never really picked up a strong bid and has since dropped over 25% to $2,000. Note that the Donald Trump-linked DeFi platform World Liberty Financial reportedly tripled its ether holdings to over $10 million last week, signaling confidence in the cryptocurrency’s long-term prospects.

The same can be said about Eric Trump’s view on BTC on Feb. 6, when he posted on X, “Feels like a great time to enter #BTC, while tagging World Liberty Financial.”

Back then, BTC traded near $96,000 and has since climbed down to $82,000, a 14.5% slide, according to data source CoinDesk. The decline has been widely linked to macroeconomic concerns, particularly the President’s tariffs on imports from China, Mexico and Canada.

The President, however, has been friendlier to crypto, recently announcing the creation of a strategic BTC reserve that retains coins seized in enforcement actions.

My advice: HODL, Eric Trump said

On March 3, Eric Trump shifted gears to suggest merit in pursuing a long-term holding strategy.

“Now my advice: HOLD (i.e. Long Term),” Eric Trump said on X, acknowledging a post by Gordon cheering the market bounce.