I shared with you in an earlier writing that I bought Twitter when it opened on the market.  A neighborhood friend and I were sharing on Facebook about the purchase, I had purchased it at $47 a share and it went down and he purchased it at around $43 a share.  At the time of the market close on 12/17/13 Twitter was setting at $59 a share, not bad for a play.  This week I’m starting to do some Dividend Capture’s for a few of my subscribers, here is a little information on how that works.  A stock may pay a quarterly dividend and have 4 ex-dividend dates in a calendar year.  The ex-dividend date is mentioned when a dividend payout announcement occurs. Even if a company is known to pay regular dividends, they must make payout announcement each time they issue a dividend. The ex-dividend date is the date that’s exactly two business days prior to the date of record. What this means is that the firm that is giving out the dividend establishes and figures out exactly which individuals are entitled to receive a dividend from the company.  If you’re one of the investors that purchases the stock before this specific date then you are entitled to the dividend when it comes out.  If you purchase the stock on this specific date or the time after it, then the previous owners are entitled to the dividend payout when it arrives. He will receive the dividend payout in cash even if he doesn’t hold the position at the time of the dividend issue. What is important is to know if you are holding the shares prior to the ex-dividend date, not when the dividend is paid.

Investors often ask “why own the stock for the entire 365 days in the year when technically you can own it for 4 days in the year to capture the dividends?” So one of them has $10,000 to invest and the other one has $1,200.  Because on the ex-dividend date the stock will periodically lose the amount of the dividend per share the one investing the $10,000 for a particular stock will make after all is said and done around $700 and the one investing in the same stock with $1,200 will make around $90.  Not bad for a quick safe 4 day investment.  There are a few people that do this monthly with around $4,000 and average making around $10,000 or better a year with their consistent $4,000 investment two to three times a month.

Safe Investing

Disclaimer:  Suburban Trader is a publisher of financial news and opinions and NOT a securities broker/dealer or an investment adviser.  You are responsible for your own investment decisions.  All information contained in our newsletters or on our web site(s) should be independently verified with the companies mentioned, and readers should always conduct their own research and due diligence.

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