Where our data comes from, and what it can and can't tell you
Every number in the app is derived from third-party market data plus the holdings you enter. Data can be incomplete or delayed, so always verify important dividend dates with the company or your broker. This page explains the sources, the labels and the limitations.
Every date is labelled
Confirmed, estimated or extrapolated, never presented as equal.
Rules, not black boxes
The safety score is a published set of rules over public data.
You can override
Any payment can be edited, deleted or marked paid by hand.
Data sources
- Prices and price history · third-party market-data providers, refreshed through the trading day. Prices may be delayed or incomplete and are not intended for trading decisions. IDT is not a live trading data service.
- Dividend events · ex-dividend, record and pay dates as reported by third-party market-data providers. We do not read company investor-relations announcements or regulatory filings directly. Where providers disagree we apply an internal precedence order so a more specific reported date beats a derived one.
- Fundamentals · payout ratio, yield and reported financials as surfaced by third-party data providers.
- FX rates · daily reference rates used to convert every holding and payout into your chosen home currency.
- Your holdings · entered by you. We never connect to a broker or bank.
How dividend dates are classified
- Confirmed · a third-party data source reports this exact date as declared.
- Estimated · part of the event is reported (usually the ex-date) and the rest is derived by us using the normal settlement lag for that market.
- Extrapolated · nothing is reported yet; the event is projected from the security's own reported history of schedules and amounts.
The label is shown on every event in the calendar and in the tooltip on each holding, and you can filter the calendar by source type. When a confirmed date replaces an estimate, you get an in-app notification so the change is never silent.
The dividend safety score
The score runs from 0 to 100 and is produced by a fixed set of rules over public data, there is no model, no forecast and no human judgement in it. The inputs are:
- Payout ratio · the largest single factor. Comfortable cover scores well; little headroom is penalised.
- Dividend growth · the annualised rate over five years where available, otherwise three or one.
- Increase streak · consecutive completed years in which the total dividend was held or raised.
- Historical cuts · any completed year where the total fell materially below the year before.
- Yield · an unusually high yield is treated as a risk signal, not a reward.
Where a company does not report enough data, the score is shown as Unrated rather than guessed. It is a summary of history, not a prediction of the future, and it is not a credit rating.
Known limitations
- Special and irregular dividends can arrive with little notice and may appear late.
- Withholding tax is not deducted automatically; use the dividend tax calculator for an estimate.
- Newly listed securities and thinly covered small caps may have incomplete dividend history.
- FX conversion uses daily reference rates, not the rate your broker actually applied.
- Prices may be delayed or incomplete. IDT is not a live trading data service and nothing here should be used as a live trading feed.
- Everything depends on third-party providers, so a confirmed label means a source reported the date as declared, it is not a guarantee the source is correct. Verify important dates with the company or your broker.
Corrections
If a date or amount looks wrong, you can edit or delete any payment yourself, and deletions of auto-synced payments are remembered so a resync will not bring them back. If the underlying data is wrong for everyone, tell us on the support page and we will investigate the source.
Frequently asked questions
Where do dividend dates come from?
Dividend events come from third-party market-data sources, not directly from companies. Each date is labelled confirmed, estimated or extrapolated so you always know how firm it is, but the label describes how we treat the data we receive, not a guarantee that the provider is error-free.
What does an 'estimated' pay date mean?
The ex-dividend date has been reported by a data source but no payment date has, so we apply the typical settlement lag for that market and label the result as estimated. Confirm it with the company or your broker before relying on it.
What is an 'extrapolated' event?
Nothing has been reported yet. We project the next event from the security's historical payment pattern. Extrapolated events are clearly marked and should be treated as a planning aid only.
How is the dividend safety score calculated?
It is a rules-based score computed from third-party data: payout ratio, multi-year dividend growth, consecutive years held or raised, historical cuts, and whether the yield is unusually high. It is not a credit rating or a prediction.
How often does data refresh?
Prices and FX refresh through the trading day. Dividend events resync in the background and whenever you refresh a holding; a confirmed reported date replaces an estimate, and you are notified when it does. Refresh timing depends on our third-party providers, so data can lag.