Very simple. When a company pays an EX dividend which emms did last wednesday of $4.oo on the next trading day the price of the stock is adjusted down the amount of the dividend ie $4.
this almost always happens. $12.63 last wed. Friday $8.63
Thank you for explaining. Now for a stupid question: If you know it's going to go down on a specific day due to the dividend, would it make sense to short it the day before or is there more to it than that?