Charles believes he has come up with a brilliant trading strategy. He is going to buy stocks which pay dividends the day prior to their ex-dividend date, and then sell these same stocks on their ex-dividend date in order to capture the dividend. He believes this will yield him a profit of the dividend amount on average, every trade! Why will this strategy not work for Charles? Charles is buying the stocks too late to be legally promised the dividend. Charles is selling the stocks too early to be legally promised the dividend. Charles strategy can be, and is easily replicated by many other investors in the market. Because of this stocks tend to go up in price by roughly the amount of the dividend prior to the ex dividend date, and then abruptly fall by the dividend amount on the ex dividend date which completely eliminates Charles expected profit. None of the above