Who gets the dividends of a call option (if anyone)?
The seller of the call is only required to deliver the stock at the expiration of the contract if it is exercised. Since the buyer has the right to buy the stock at the expiration date they do not have the right to any dividends received prior to that date. Now the seller of the call option does not have to own the stock when the call is sold, he simply has to deliver it when exercised. All this is pending these are not cash settlement options. Additional: If the option happens to be exercised on the ex-date it gets more complicated because T+3 applies, so the owner of record on the x date would be the seller of the call and they would recieve the dividend. For all intensive purposes the dividend goes to whoever the owner of record is on the ex-date.
