Can anybody share the knowledge and experience on how many days before ex-dividend date you need to buy a stock in order to get the dividend, keeping in mind that in T&C of T212 says that the orders are settled on T+2 manner. My understanding is that the orders are settled 2 business days after the order has been executed. And does it mean that you need to buy 2 days before ex-dividend date? And if you sell the stock on the next day of ex-dividend date, will you still get the dividend on payout date?
Thank you.
@Dumitru_C: @Vedran is right. People get too worked up about buying before or after the ex-dividend date. They think there is some advantage in buying in time to collect the dividend - but there is not, as the share price adjusts to reflect this.
In fact, for a UK taxpayer who pays tax of 20% on capital gains and 32.5% on dividends one could argue it is better to avoid dividends and see the return coming as capital gains. But if you are in a band such your taxes are nil then it should be insignificant difference between capturing a dividend or not.
