Furious, confused, disappointed and pleased traders took over the major financial forums after Tuffnell Ltd.(OTC:TUFF) announced the 3 for 1 stock dividend. Some would blame for backdating actions, frustrated with the results. What is also possible, however, is that most shareholders did not really understand what happened. 
The reason for the above confusion lies partly in the fact that what Tuffnell did is not the usual dividend distribution that happens on the market. In fact, less than 1% of all dividends paid are distributed the same way, which is why most interested parties got confused and angry with the company. Knowledge of what payment date, ex-dividend day and record day is could have prevented that, as an yahoo poster puts it, providing a source for all who are not familiar with the associated terms and processes.
Another important reason that sparkled discussions lies in the fact that Tuffnell is a small company. Despite what some shareholders think, the company did announce the 3 for 1 stock dividend on March 24th last week, rather than on the 28th, which some people believed. Actually, the news was not picked up by major media enterprises, which is why the information never got to many people interested in the topic on time. [BANNER]
On the other hand, tensions might calm down by the rest of the week, since as more people do the necessary due diligence on how these type of stock dividends work they would understand what exactly happened and why there is a delay in some data in the balance sheet. In the meantime, the stock price is accumulating value, which could also take tensions down.
There are, on the other hand, rumours on the Internet regarding lucrative short-selling activities. A glance at the short-selling data for the last trading sessions would reveal that there was indeed some, whether there is a connection to the recent dividend distribution is another matter entirely.
What actually happened is that the focus was shifted away from the facts that matter most when considering an investment in Tuffnell. Facts like financial condition, state of operations etc. The results for 2010 are not exactly optimistic, which is why the next SEC filings, which should be released soon, should provide a broader and clearer picture about the present state of the company. There has been encouraging news in the past month, but without financial data to back them up uncertainty and confusion might prevail.
