The trade was done on 12/8, so it’s already x-div. And options expire on 12/16, while dividend is paid on 12/19. So it looks to me dividends are irrelevant in this play. https://www.holdingschannel.com
Yes it already an ex-div trade, therefore there is no need to give back the dividend to the renter. So we go back to the fact that this is a 3 leg arbitrage. The trade is indeed a free lunch, that will yield in a week 25935 USD$ minus the charges for the transactions and the stock renting.
Ex-div is today (Dec 9, 2022) from the info I gather around the Net (and payment on the 20th). I don't know where you got your information. This detail makes a big difference in their strategy.
So we are talking about below - Buying puts and buying Stock, collecting div, and exercising puts. Dividend Arbitrage Example To illustrate how dividend arbitrage works, imagine that stock XYZABC is currently trading at $50 per share and is paying a $2 dividend in one week's time. A put option with an expiry of three weeks from now and a strike price of $60 is selling for $11. A trader wishing to structure a dividend arbitrage can purchase one contract for $1,100 and 100 shares for $5,000, for a total cost of $6,100. In one week's time, the trader will collect the $200 in dividends and the put option to sell the stock for $6,000. The total earned from the dividend and stock sale is $6,200, for a profit of $100 before fees and taxes.
Before further speculation about this trade, we need to sort out which one is the ex div day, since this makes a big difference as rb7 pointed out.
Tks.So they need to give the div back. Therefore it is probably a bearish trade making money below 28.4.
This is a theoretical example not easy to replicate cause in the real world, the put option price will be higher and the dividend lower. Anyway, SIG strategy is different than that one and is highly impacted by the fees they are paying/receiving. I wish I could remember what were the details of their strategy but it wasn't profitable on all US option exchanges, only on ones with the right fee schedule.