How are Dividends handled?

Strategy Backtesting
#1

Hi there,

I am currently wondering if zipline-reloaded really handles dividends correctly??
To show this I can implement a simple buy-and-hold strategy on Apple, say in the following way:

from zipline import run_algorithm
import pandas as pd

from zipline.api import symbol, order_target_percent
from zipline.finance import commission, slippage


def initialize(context):
    context.asset = symbol('AAPL')
    context.set_commission(commission.PerDollar(cost=0.00))
    context.set_slippage(slippage.FixedSlippage(spread=0.0))
    context.has_ordered = False


def handle_data(context, data):
    if not context.has_ordered:
        order_target_percent(context.asset, 1.0)
        context.has_ordered = True


def analyze(context, perf):
    pass


if __name__ == "__main__":

    start_date = pd.Timestamp('2014-01-01')
    end_date = pd.Timestamp('2018-12-31')

    result = run_algorithm(
        start=start_date.tz_localize('UTC'),
        end=end_date.tz_localize('UTC'),
        initialize=initialize,
        handle_data=handle_data,
        analyze=analyze,
        capital_base=20000,
        data_frequency='daily',
        bundle='quandl'
    )

I can see that Apple had dividends paid over this period (for instance one on the 6th of February 2014 being the first. Here, I would either expect another order for the dividends to be reinvested, or my cash account to increase. However, none of this is happening:

result.loc['2014-02-05':'2014-02-10',['starting_cash','ending_cash']]
Out[3]: 
                           starting_cash  ending_cash
2014-02-05 21:00:00+00:00         524.72       524.72
2014-02-06 21:00:00+00:00         524.72       524.72
2014-02-07 21:00:00+00:00         524.72       524.72
2014-02-10 21:00:00+00:00         524.72       524.72

result.loc['2014-02-05':'2014-02-10',['orders']]
Out[4]: 
                          orders
2014-02-05 21:00:00+00:00     []
2014-02-06 21:00:00+00:00     []
2014-02-07 21:00:00+00:00     []
2014-02-10 21:00:00+00:00     []

Does anybody know where I am going wrong here?

I have also gone through the source code which I believe is handled within zipline.gens.tradesimulation.py → AlgorithmSimulator.transform(), but here I also don’t seem to find any logic for handling dividends (at least not any obvious one to me…).

Would be great if anybody could help.
Many thanks.
Best,
Chris

#2

These are methods I found in [src/zipline/finance/position.py](https://github.com/stefan-jansen/zipline-reloaded/blob/main/src/zipline/finance/position.py)
still looking for how and when they are executed.

 def earn_dividend(self, dividend):
        """
        Register the number of shares we held at this dividend's ex date so
        that we can pay out the correct amount on the dividend's pay date.
        """
        return {"amount": self.amount * dividend.amount}

def earn_stock_dividend(self, stock_dividend):
        """
        Register the number of shares we held at this dividend's ex date so
        that we can pay out the correct amount on the dividend's pay date.
        """
        return {
            "payment_asset": stock_dividend.payment_asset,
            "share_count": np.floor(self.amount * float(stock_dividend.ratio)),
        }