Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of Noranda Aluminum (NYSE: NOR) fell as much as 16% today after the company began trading ex-dividend.

So what: Before you panic, today is three days before Noranda's dividend date of record, meaning holders at the end of trading last night will be paid a $1 special dividend and a $0.03 regular dividend. Shares opened trading just above a $1 drop from last night's close and have fallen along with the market throughout the day.

Now what: The initial drop should have been expected, and without any news out today I'm attributing the fall throughout the day to normal market movements. The drop may look big, but investors will find a nice $1.03 present in their brokerage accounts on Nov. 22.

So at the end of the day, the move wasn't really all that big for Noranda.

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