Shoot me down. Have I just come up with a way to waste time and money?
Heard of a certain coal stock that was looking to pay 20% to 30% dividends this year for obvious reasons however it's a small/microcap. High probability at current prices that as soon as that dividend goes through the share price will drop by the equivalent or more. Got the cogs turning in my head though.
Suppose you weren't a mere mortal retail investor but had access to other investment "tools"... and could short the same stock whilst having a longer interest in it to collect the dividend. Then use the shorted gains to re-buy into the long position at a lower price expecting more dividends in the future and the market to forget about it and eventually tick back up to a steady price target...
But then would you just be looking at the result of shorting the stock with a net neutral result on the dividend payout...?
I've done some maths and looks like it needs a pretty accurate set of predictions, not much can go wrong and nets out at where X = Not worth the trouble
But was just a curious thought.