what is ex dividend 
a dividend is a cash payment to shareholders as a reward for investing in company stock or equity shares ex dividend means a company s dividend allocations have been specified the ex dividend date or ex date is usually one business day before the record date investors who purchase a stock on its ex dividend date or after will not receive the next dividend payment instead the seller gets the dividend investors only get dividends if they buy the stock before the ex dividend date ex dividend datea stock trades ex dividend on and after the ex dividend date or ex date investors who buy a stock on the ex dividend date or after will not receive the next dividend payment since buyers aren t entitled to the next dividend payment on the ex date the stock will be priced lower by the amount of the dividend by the exchange 1some broker platforms might use an xd suffix to the stock s ticker to indicate it is trading ex dividend declaring dividends