GoSeigen wrote:monabri wrote: However, looking at the number of shares I hold in HSBC and the effective loss of a 10 cent dividend, I'm sort of swinging to Pyad's view in terms of how much nicer the 10 cent per share divi would have been in my pocket.
[expletive acronym deleted] if you want 10% in your pocket why don't you just sell 10% of your shares then? It makes not the slightest difference where the 10% comes from.
GS
I think you just answered your own question: because the trading costs would make it not worthwhile.
PYAD is correct for an income investor, and Dod is incorrect, as far as I can see. I doesn't matter whether the amount is small - 10 cent or whatever- it is still an income lost which could have been paid. And the ones who will benefit most in £ or $ will be the big institutional investors - mates to the top people in any large corporation and this is the basis of pyad's remark. Probably not too far off the mark and I certainly wouldn't assume HSBC is entirely innocent, so I would regard the comment as unproven and unprovable rather than scurrilous.
Arb.