Oh, man. Don't get me started on dividends. I'm very anti-dividend for a couple of reasons. 1) They create a taxable event. I want to defer my taxes for as long as possible. If I want cash flow, I can create my own cash flow by selling some shares which is very cheap to do these days. DRIPs are the worst because they create a taxable event with essentially no change in capital structure. 2) US dividends are treated as income for Canadians. This disincents me from purchasing some good dividend paying US names. BRK and GOOGL are two of my largest holdings because they don't pay dividends. If they ever start to pay dividends, I'll have some decisions to make. Dividends had their time and place to provide cash flow to owners. But with liquidity the way it is now, the use for dividends is certainly less. Now the only reason a lot of these companies pay dividends is to ensure their shares are eligible for certain funds that require their holdings to pay dividends.
Macke went crazy a few years back. Something about "Car People". https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&...PLBp4TnMhM9c5ZOOw&sig2=xvb_ELxn4KCHsRTEaKmDmA
But creates another. Futures have their own tax implications between rolling and year-end M2M. My perspective is from a long-term buy-and-holder which may not be appropriate for a trading forum.
Well, those are really specific reasons to not like divedents, but I get it. They are still a good thing, seeing how the stock always dips on div payment.
Finally someone who has the same view on dividends as me!!! I can't understand how everyone is so dividend minded... You're exactly spot on with your statement that companies with high dividend and buybacks can't find anything else to put their money (read shareholders') to work. I understand that for non-innovative businesses they just can't find a fit... but progress or standstill and fall back... invest and grow as a company! Don't pay dividends which have no real effect on my portfolio value... The pay for dividend is a hoax...
You do know why the stock 'dips' on ex-dividend right?? It's because they at that moment have less cash... so worth less... It goes from one of my pocket (stock/porftolio value) to the other (cash in account). $100 stock pays out $10 dividend, on ex-div date it's worth $90... fact...