Asif Suria

Special Dividends Not All That Special

Thanks for the hint Saul. The drop is usually on the ex-dividend date and not the distribution date. However in both the special dividends discussed in this post, the ex-dividend date was the day <b>after</b&g... the distribution and hence the price adjustment happened right after the dividend was paid.

Thanks for mentioning the typo. I have fixed it on the SINLetter blog.

Regarding shorting a stock that includes a special dividend, I would think that just like any other dividend you would have to pay the dividend or the broker might adjust your cost basis. We would need someone who has done this before to comment to confirm exactly what happens. As an alternative, you could try shorting HMA and find out for yourself.