Dividend Capture Strategy is basically a stock trading strategy in which you buy a dividend stock in order to get the dividend, then at a certain point, sell that dividend stock to get out of the position, having successfully captured the dividend.
The crucial date is the “ex-dividend date”. And without getting into the details of this important date, the strategy is to buy X amount of shares before the ex-dividend date, then sell them on or after the ex-dividend date. Thus, you’ve captured the dividend, and hopefully you sold the stock with a profit + the dividend.
Check out: How to Use the Dividend Capture Strategy
A Possible Scenario
Let’s say you are looking at a stock called ABC that is currently worth about $20 a share.
With a dividend capture strategy, you can buy 1,000 shares of ABC at $20 a share. $20,000 worth of ABC stock. And it has a quarterly dividend of .50 a share.
You buy 1,000 shares at $20 and in a week’s time before the ex-dividend date, the stock goes up $2…
On the ex-dividend date you sell the stock at $22 a share. And thus, you’ve made a profit of $2 a share. And a total profit of $2,000 made.
With the dividend of 0.50 per share quarterly, 0.50 x 1,000 shares equals a dividend of $500 total…
$2,000 profit on the stock + $500 dividend = $2,500 total profit on buy/sell trade.
Stock Action Tends to Drop After Ex-Dividend Date
So, technically you would capture the dividend if you buy the stock before the ex-dividend date, then sell the stock on the ex-dividend date or anytime afterwards.
But, historically, stock prices tend to trend downward AFTER the ex-dividend date, so the ideal time to sell would be on the ex-dividend date.
This is a great strategy for trading stocks and also swing trading short-term, but keep in mind, a complete portfolio management strategy would be to have long term positions of top performing stocks, along with shorter term trades for growth.
The dividend capture strategy is a good one to utilize in addition to long term and value investing strategies.
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