Hi,

I am new to trading. I need help regarding selling stocks.

Today i sold my stock and i see that my buying power is not changed its still showing same amount as previous

Am i missing anything here.

Also, I bough few stocks of XOM on 04/30/2008 and I see that dividends are paid on May 9th. Upon looking at the Account History for Dividends I dont see any transaction.

Can anyone help me.

Thanks for the Help
- SA

You Need To Hold The Shares For A Year (Or More) To Get Dividends

Its awesome here in that regard.  I cant explain how they doit, but I have had access to the entire amount of a sale for use in an immediate purchase. In other words there has be no hold for clearing on large majority of my executions.

Parker, that is not true... you must be in the stock by the ex-dividend date for that quarter and then you will get paid on the pay date for that quarter.  Usullay, I see the ex-div date about 30 days prior to payout date.

CQParker:

You Need To Hold The Shares For A Year (Or More) To Get Dividends

NO YOU DON'T!

ZooMNFinancial -

Can you elaborate on your post and give an example of when you do not need to hold a position for more than one year to receive a dividend?

Thanks.

You need to hold a position on the ex-dividend date to receive the dividend.  Since most companies pay quarterly dividends there will be four ex-dividend dates each year.  The dividend payment date is usually several weeks after the ex-dividend date.

The stocks I hold will generally have 3 div dates for them. The first is the record date, anybody holding shares at close of trading will get a payment. The second being the pay date, this is the date that the dividend is actually paid. And IIRC for companies that do both on the same day, there's the ex-div date. All stocks that pay a dividend have an ex-div date, but for companies that have their record date earlier, I believe the ex-div is listed on the date that the funds are actually paid out.

In terms of XOM, I'd look at their press releases for the last few months and see if they've included information about the dividend. It might be that by policy they go with a record date and pay date rather than an ex-date, in which case you may or may not have owned any shares at the right time.

I'm pretty sure that with all the profits lately that they'll have their dividend, but it might be that they don't use the ex-div date.

Edit: Probably got the ex date a bit backwards.

hedwards:

The stocks I hold will generally have 3 div dates for them. The first is the record date, anybody holding shares at close of trading will get a payment. The second being the pay date, this is the date that the dividend is actually paid. And IIRC for companies that do both on the same day, there's the ex-div date. All stocks that pay a dividend have an ex-div date, but for companies that have their record date earlier, I believe the ex-div is listed on the date that the funds are actually paid out.

In terms of XOM, I'd look at their press releases for the last few months and see if they've included information about the dividend. It might be that by policy they go with a record date and pay date rather than an ex-date, in which case you may or may not have owned any shares at the right time.

I'm pretty sure that with all the profits lately that they'll have their dividend, but it might be that they don't use the ex-div date.

Most everything you just posted is incorrect.  Let's start at the beginning.  The first date is the dividend declaration date.  That is the date that the company's board makes the decision to pay the dividend.  Within that dividend declaration they will specify two additional dates.  The first in time is the shareholder of record date.  That is the date on which a person must be a shareholder on the books of the company to receive the dividend.  The second date is the dividend payment date.  That is the date on which the dividend is actually paid.

Now we get to the part that confuses people.  The ex-dividend date.  The ex date serves the purpose of providing a method to give certainty to the dividend payment process.  The ex date arbitrarily determines the cutoff point without regard to the actual share transfer process.  The ex date is prior to the record date.  If you buy before the ex date you get the dividend. If you buy on or after you don't.

If you actually think through the process you can see that logic and common sense requires that the payments be certain.

Hey satishstock, 

     Welcome to The Game.  I think you just got a whole brick of info dumped into your lap, but if you get confused, investopedia, finra.org, and even good ole fashioned Wikipedia can help you learn all you want about the ins and out of dividends.  But for the most part, you won't see your actual money in your zecco account for some time (average about 3-4 weeks).  When those dividend payments are delivered, then it will show up on your account history, so don't worry if you don't see  it immediately. 

And as per your main question, the zecco "trading power" and "buying power" numbers are slow.  They don't update right away, and even then they can be a little off.  But if the Sell trade is executed, your money is available to you to re-invest right away.  By the start of the next investment day, all your balances and buying power numbers will be right in line with your actual amounts.

Thanks - I'm new At this Too!! I have Shares In Prudential (Prudential Held)And They Pay Yearly - Thats What Got Me Started Into "Playing The Market"