[tomp]

Well, the stock price might have changed because of some news or general market sentiment. I guess I could have found a better example, a stock where the dividend is much bigger (percentage-wise), the effect would be much clearer then.

Edit: e.g. EWM (an ETF, I think)

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/q/hp?s=EWM&d=3&e=4&f=2016&g=d&a...

No, shorting doesn't work that way, obviously. "Shorting" means you sell he stock, so the new owner gets the dividend, not you. That's one reason shorting equities is very risky long-term.

[JDDunn9]

The ex-dividend date is an implementation flaw that makes the stock price discontinuous at the dividend date (I initially misunderstood this). However, in theory, a pro-rata dividend would be continuous.

[tomp]

Yes. That's what happens with bonds (clean vs dirty price). It's more complicated with equities because the size of the payout isn't known in advance.