I just want to reinforce these IMPORTANT dividend dates because the terms used can be glossed over by a "newb" and they're important. The MORE you have invested in the names the MORE important they become!
For example:
Regular Dividend of $0.125 Announced Thursday: F announced a new dividend to be paid 03/03/2014 to shareholders of record as of 01/31/2014.
The IMPORTANT date and term here is SHAREHOLDERS OF RECORD ---- and the Date 01/31/2014
REMEMBER that you can't buy on -1/31 and be considered a SHAREHOLDER OF RECORD because of the SETTLE DATE used by your particular brokerage -- Schwab is typically 3 days... your's might be 2 days or it could be longer! You must account for the SETTLE DATE if you want to capture the dividend IF you're factoring that in. Frankly -- I usually don't...
BUT I DO note the dividend date if I'm thinking about selling!! If I can wait to get the dividend AND THEN sell... why not. But of course - like most investing there might be reasons not to hang around til that date... so it all depends.
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