This is all very confusing....but I still think Jo

This is all very confusing....but I still think Joe was correct in the CC. If you buy before the record date, you get the dividend directly from GNBT. If you buy between the record and payment date, you get the dividend from whomever you purchased your stock from (via the "due bill" process). After the payment date, you have the ex-divi date, and at that point, pps adjusts for all GNBT shares to reflect whatever the market thought the NIO shares were worth when they were part of GNBT. Since they have been split out, that value has been taken away from GNBT and a smaller pps reflects the loss of value.

I really think it is that simple - otherwise, there would be a huge drop in pps between the record date and payment date, simply because all sellers would get the divi and the buyers would only get the shares purchased. So pps would have to go way down to entice any trades at all. I've never seen a stock trade like that, and I can't believe FINRA or the SEC would create a trap where for a period of time, there is a large disincentive to trade shares.

Full Disclosure Warning - I have been wrong before! I did buy GNBT when AG was CEO....