New Feature: Edit Dividends

Dividends – be it past, upcoming, or projected – is one of the most popular features in StocksCafe. I understand how important it is for them to be updated and accurate, and with this new feature, we are one step closer to that.

Not updated and inaccurate dividends
Often, users would write to me and highlight a dividend not reflected in StocksCafe even though the company has already announced it. This is usually due to a lag in update in my upstream data provider, which takes a few working days to have the new dividends updated.

In addition, users have recently highlighted that projected dividends are inaccurate, as some companies have already announced/projected the dividends that they will pay well ahead of time. Also, some dividends are oneoff and should not be projected forward.

The Solution
To solve the above issues, users have suggested that they want the ability to add/delete dividends in order to contribute to StocksCafe. Hence, I spent some time implementing the ability to enable users to do just that.

Guidelines:
1) Please only make edits that are official (i.e. company announcements or other official channels). In the event, the exact ExDate is not known but the company have already announced the plans for their whole year dividends, please choose the type to be “Projected”.
2) Only Friends of StocksCafe can edit (i.e. add/delete) dividends.
3) Note that every edit will take effect after they have been approved.
4) I will personally review (i.e. approve/reject) every edit. If any user is found to go rogue, I will blacklist that user indefinitely. Such users will still be able to use StocksCafe but cannot make further edits (and will likely be banned from other similar features).
5) A user may at most have 20 unreviewed edits (add/delete). This number will be reset upon review of the edits.

How?
Using DBS as an example; go to the dividend details page.
– To remove a dividend, click “Remove”.
– To overwrite a dividend, click “Edit/Add”; many fields will be auto-populated. Be sure to change the dividend amount field.
– To add a dividend, also click “Edit/Add”. Ensure that the ExDate and other fields are correct.

Notes:
– If you made a mistake, you can go to the Override tab to undo by clicking on “Remove”.
– If you tried to add a dividend and the original dividend disappeared, do not worry. Simply go through the add dividend process again to add back the dividend that disappeared. (It was designed this way for ease of overwriting the system dividends, which should make up majority of the cases)
– Please be as precise as possible. If a stock is giving out two dividends on the same ex-date, please add it as two instead of summing them together.

Bottom line: Just ensure that the information on the dividend details suggested page is accurate and what you intend for it to look like.

Let’s work together to make StocksCafe better!

Updates: Initially, all edits take effect immediately. However, there are concerns of erroneous edits hence we have switched to taking effect only after approval.