What is a Dividend Capture?
A dividend capture is a strategy of buying and selling stock that are almost ready to declare a dividend. Generally, a publicly-traded corporation will declare its dividend on a certain date, and then say that dividend is payable to all shareholders of record on a certain future date. Those who try to buy the stock solely to get paid a dividend, then sell, are said to be engaging in a strategy of dividend capture, or trading dividends.
