Note: The article was written as of November 28 and references stock and option prices valid on that day.

Recently I wrote an article concerning stock dividends and I pointed out how the dividend itself doesn't make one wealthier. This upset a lot of people that believe that stocks are not devalued (by the amount of the dividend) when dividends get paid out.

So let's settle this argument once and for all. If you think you're right about something in the market, then put money on it. And if you're right, you'll make money. Any argument that arises among my trading buddies (and we argue about everything) is swiftly settled with one phrase: "How much do you wanna bet?"

If you believe that a dividend doesn't lower the price of a stock, then keep reading because I'm going to show you a trade that will guarantee you a profit.

I once spoke with an options trading student who said he was 80% right on his stock picks, but was still losing money. How could that be? He readily admitted that after four straight winning trades he got greedy and risked far more on his fifth trade than he had on the previous ones.

Shocker - the fifth trade lost. It lost in an amount that wiped out the profits from the previous four trades. Don't quote me on these numbers, but it was something like four straight $2,000 wins, and then one $10,000 loss.

You're destined to lose on that one over-sized trade. Blame it on Murphy's Law.

Protecting against this problem comes down to one thing: proper position sizing. The amount of money at risk in your option trade shouldn't be defined by the number of contracts you trade, but rather by the percentage of your

With interest rates at historical lows (well, let's face it… interest rates are at zero) a lot of investor focus is turning to dividend paying stocks to provide cash. Whereas money market funds used to provide at least a little bit of return, these funds are now nothing more than giant mattresses where billions of dollars get stuffed. Whether these mattresses are really as safe as your pillow-top Serta at home is a question for another time. Any return that your money market might give you is quickly swallowed up by inflation, so many investors look to companies that return cash to investors in the form of a dividend.

Warning: I may ruffle some feathers with what you're about to read. Please just keep an open mind. I'm not going to say that dividends are bad, but that they're just not what many people believe them to be. (See