You are right build. I had forgotten the exact rul
Post# of 36537
https://www.simplysafedividends.com/intellige...tock-price
Special Dividend Rules
The usual rules about holding periods don’t necessarily apply to special dividends.
For example, with normal dividends the company will issue three dates: the ex-dividend date, the record date, and the pay date.
This means that anyone who is a shareholder of record (i.e. your broker’s clearing house has a record of you owning shares) will get the dividend on the pay date.
The ex-dividend date is the first day that you won’t get the dividend if you purchase shares that day.
In other words, in order to get the most recently announced regular dividend, you must purchase shares the day before the ex-div date .
So you have to buy no later than 3:59PM Monday 2/24/2020 to get in before Tuesday's Ex date.