So far as I understand if you sell it on or before the date of record
you will not get a dividend.  The dividend is paid to people who hold
the security as at the end of the record date, and have before the ex-
date.

In this case you will only get a dividend from GCH if you bought GCH
on or before the 19th, and held it at least through end of day 24th.
Which is going to be a bit of a hairraiser because it's Christmas eve
and the markets will be closed early, but when it reopens after
Christmas there is likely to be some fluctuations in the price of GCH.

Also, Holla -- my response to you was somewhat incomplete and I
apologize.  You should know some tax info before you make the
decision.  Please see:

http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc404.html

...which describes the tax treatment of mutual funds of any type.  If
you had minimal taxable income in the U.S., and wanted to take the
dividend and run, it MAY pay to buy first, take the dividend, and sell
the next market day.  But if you are looking to hold the fund for some
time, I would say that buying AFTER the inevitable drop would be
better.

When you buy a mutual fund you own a piece of its assets.  For the
mutual fund to then give you some of those assets in cash is a taxable
event.  If you take some of your (already taxed money) and buy the
fund just before the dividends, you'll be taxed on the distribution.
If you are then able to sell the fund for the same amount of money
that you bought it for, or for less but not by as much as the dividend
minus the tax, fine.  You made a profit because you took some
dividends and got rid of the fund without losing some money in the
process.  But it would carry some risk since, if the fund dropped by
as much as the dividend or maybe even more, then you would be out some
money on the taxes, and be stuck waiting for the fund to go back up.

For example, if you bought 100 shares of the fund at $30 for a total
of $3000 (I'm approximate numbers to make this go faster) and it paid
you $10 per share for a total of $1,000 dividend, and you are in the
5% dividend tax bracket in the U.S. due to some particular reason, you
would owe $50 on the whole deal.  However, if the fund dropped by $10
-- exactly as much as the dividend, you will actually be out $50 on
paper, because your shares will be only worth $2000 and you will have
$950 in dividends after tax for a total of $2950.  If the fall in the
fund's prices somehow was steeper -- for argument's sake falls by $12,
on momentum or just regular market fluctuation, you would be out more
-- your shares will now be worth only $1800 which, combined with your
post tax $950 in dividends, puts you at $2750 or $250 less than when
you started.

Furthermore for dividends to be taxed as dividends instead of income I
think You would have to hold the fund for 61 days.  So for you to turn
a profit on the deal the fund would have to have made up for the
difference described above during the time you hold it.  If you hold
the fund for less than 61 days it's just treated as regular income
which will be taxed at a higher percentage.  In either case if the
fund has fallen by more than your post-tax dividend amount, you'll
have less than when you started.  So you have to consider your taxable
income and what your outlook of GCH's future in the time you intend to
hold it.

Since the attempt to take the dividend and run is a complex maneuver
involving many considerations and requires your faith in the 61+ day
future of the fund, or at least that the fund will not put you in the
hole at your tax bracket during the time you're holding it, whatever
that is, I personally feel that it is generally better to buy after
the fund drops.  Last year it actually went up after the ex date,
fluctuated a bit but headed up slightly more by the payment date, then
fell like a rock and did not recover for months.  See http://www.greaterchinafund.com/
for stock charts with user-defined time periods.

I hope this is clear to you.  Please note that I am not a tax or
financial professional and I *strongly* recommend that you speak with
one before you make your decision.