Note that I said "from the company". My point was that the company only pays dividend to real shares, and the stock market intends to track ownership of those r

Note that I said "from the company". My point was that the company only pays dividend to real shares, and the stock market intends to track ownership of those real shares. This does not prevent lenders and short sellers to replicate dividends from IOUs of shares via contractual agreements, but it is not the same thing.