Not trying to make money with this, I just want to understand correctly. If Wednesday is ex-dividend date: 1. To avoid getting dividend Sell on close on Tuesday Buy on open on Wednesday 2. To get dividend Buy on close on Tuesday Sell on open on Wednesday Is that correct?
KEY TAKEAWAYS Ex-dividend is when a company's dividend allocations have been specified. The ex-dividend date of a stock is the day on which the stock begins trading without the subsequent dividend value. Investors who purchased the stock before the ex-dividend date are entitled to the next dividend payment while those who purchased the stock on the ex-dividend date, or after, are not. The ex-dividend date occurs before the record date because a stock trade is settled "T+1" meaning that the record of that transaction isn't settled for one business day.
Ok, so if you want to get dividend you have to: buy on Tuesday close and sell on Thursday open? But for avoiding dividend it's ok to: sell on Tuesday close and buy on Wednesday open?
With an ex-dividend date of 14th you need to have the position in your account from the day before - 13th and hold it overnight. At the ext-dividend date 14th you can close it when the market opens and still, at the pay date you will be paid the dividend. (We are not discussing if the trade itself alone or the whole trade with the dividend counted will be profitable at the end). If you don't want to participate in the dividend distribution that is set on a 14th as an ex-dividend date, you must close your position before the market close on the 13th(again, I'm not sure how after-hours and pre-market hours come into the equation, but stick to the open and close as references and you would be fine in these situations).