Can a student on F1 visa do trading on stock market in USA. Whats are
the restrictions if any?

Hello vvvslaxman,

Yes, a student on an F1 visa can indeed trade stocks in the US.
However, since a person on an F1 visa is supposed to be a student and
not hold down a full time job, he or she cannot execute enough
same-day trades to be considered a day trader.

Immigration Portal Forum
http://www.immigrationportal.com/archive/index.php/t-200502.html

Here is the official SEC definition of day trading:

SEC
http://www.sec.gov/answers/daytrading.htm

"Day Trading

Day traders rapidly buy and sell stocks throughout the day in the hope
that their stocks will continue climbing or falling in value for the
seconds to minutes they own the stock, allowing them to lock in quick
profits. Day trading is extremely risky and can result in substantial
financial losses in a very short period of time."

If you become a day trader, that is "working" by definition and would
thus be a violation of the terms of your student visa.

alt.visa.us
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.visa.us/browse_frm/thread/a8f958e42e50f16/d90842a075e0084c?lnk=st&q=visa+stock+trading&rnum=1&hl=en#d90842a075e0084c

"However, if you plan on daytrading - that is,
spending a considerable amount of time on it - it could be considered
working, rather than a passive investment."

Search terms:
(On Google and Google Groups)
sec day trader
visa stock trading

If you need any clarification, let me know and I'll be glad to help.

--keystroke-ga

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Request for Answer Clarification by vvvslaxman-ga on 09 Oct 2006 22:00 PDT

Hey could you tell how many same day trades executed per day will make
him/her a day trader. Is this calculated on  a day to day basis or a
monthly basis.

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Clarification of Answer by keystroke-ga on 18 Oct 2006 10:37 PDT

Hello vvvslaxman,

This is calculated on a day to day basis.

I am not entirely sure on what the exact number of trades are, but the
general definition of day trading can be found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_trading

If you're selling during the day enough so that many of your stocks
are different at the end than at the beginning, you're a day trader.

"Depending on one's trading strategy, it may range from several to
even a hundred orders a day."

You would have to at least four to five trades daily before you would
be considered a day trader, I would think.

--keystroke-ga