If I want to collect the dividend on each share of XYZ that I purchase, then I must make sure that I buy XYZ shares before the ex-dividend date. Now that we have all the dates that we need we can start looking at what each one of these dates means. For this reason, I typically only enter positions when the ex-dividend date has been confirmed by the company.

If we are not able to estimate these dates before the dividend declaration date then it will not be possible for us to do the analysis needed to setup our dividend swing-trade or dividend reinvestment position. The day when the company actually announces these dates is referred to as the dividend declaration date.Īfter the dividend declaration date occurs we have all the dates that we need for the swing-trade, namely: the ex-dividend date, dividend record-date, and the dividend payable date. We might be able to estimate when the ex-dividend date and record-date will be but until the company officially announces these dates then it will only be an estimate. The company usually doesn’t publish this information but if you inspect the historical data then you can see the trend or pattern that they use for their ex-dividend date and record-date. Most monthly dividend stocks pay their dividend in a pattern each month like on the 2nd Friday of the month or the 10th trading day of the month, etc. At certain points during the month we might not know when the next dividend payment will “officially” be paid out. Lets say that we have a stock XYZ that pays a dividend on a monthly basis. If you have any idea’s or questions about the strategy, please comment below.

This tutorial is the process that I go through using dividend stocks to find and evaluate my swing-trades every month.

Dividend capture strategy