I shorted ANZ a week before the ex-div date in April 2014 and closed the short the day after ex-div for a motza profit. If I had also opened an ANZ long trade 4 weeks before ex-div, and closed it one week before ex-div as per Strategy 2, I would have made a couple motzas.
I had my eye on the recent CBA ex-div, with a plan to short one week before ex-div. However, rather than being in a sustained uptrend for the 2 or 3 weeks prior to one week out from ex-div, CBA had been in a downtrend. In addition, the global markets were all over the place at that time. Hence, fortunately I decided the CBA share price set up for the ex-div strategy was not right.
However, perhaps it is all about averages, and global market stability at the time. Hence, the reason why I am interested in the analysis for the ASX50 over the last 5 years. If I manage to find the data in a convenient form the analysis will be simple, and further 'what if' scenarios will be just as simple.
