was also at a nice discount all day to the underlying stock it did move more or less tick for tick with the name but there was no volume in the SSF
What if the board of directors decides to elimate dividends for GM because of their dire financial situation? Then you can lock in the dividends with the SSF's. That is just one of many ways to use various instruments to your advantage. If you lock in a spread and the spread exists for a reason, and that reason gets nullified, you just made some money. It has happened before when Sullivan screwed MCI shareholders out of their dividend after the company said they were on track to pay it.
If the dividend were cancelled, likely the stock price would drop to match the SSF, so the profit would be in shorting the stock rather than buying the SSF
That is another example, too. If something strikes you as odd right off the bad, there is probably a reason for it.