it certainly is a very significant event. a few of us on my thread had postulated that the fund managers have been doing a bit of buying in advance to beat their fund manager brethern to the punch. that may be partially responsible for the endless support the market has gotten the last few weeks. they know full well they have a chunk of change coming in next week. if they can buy ahead of their competitors, it could give them an edge. of course i have no way of proving it, but thats exactly what i would do in their shoes.
Hi Zeev, there is another way to look at the msft dividend possibly. If the many million buyers at 30ish that bought on the 17th or whenever are under water at say 30.00 - 3.08 = 26.92, I doubt they will be reinvesting that dividend if they still hold the stock as they will not come out ahead. Even if they sold the next day at above 27 on the open they are only ahead by a small amount and not enough to move the market on that alone. The best way that the market can shaft the investor is to have msft at 26ish on december 2nd for dividend. I doubt there will be market shaking events if it is at that price.