Is Stock Trading legal for a student on F-1 Visa doing CPT in USA?
you dont need any permits or be inside the US to trade the exact same securities on US exchanges. you can literally move your bitcoin from a chinese exchange to us exchange in seconds.  i don't see how you can possibly run into legal issues if anyone from outside the country can trade bitcoins on an exchange inside the country without any permit. a lot of these exchanges dont ask for ID or social security number anyways. none of it is government regulated. also trading anything is never a passive income. theres no such thing as an easy or obvious investment. there are always risks- and the actual risk is often deceivingly low There are no legal reasons preventing you from trading as a F-1 visa holder, as noted in this Money.SE answer. Per this article, here are the things you need to set up an account: What do I need to have for doing Stock trading as F1 student ? Typically, most of the stock brokerage firms require Social Security   Number (SSN) for stock trading. The reason is that, for your capital   gains, it is required  by IRS for tax purposes. If you work on campus,   then you would already get SSN as part of the job application   process…Typically, once you get the on-campus job or work   authorization using CPT or OPT , you use that offer letter and take   all your current documents like Passport, I-20, I-94 and apply for SSN   at Social Security Administration(SSA) Office, check full details at   SSA Website . SSN is typically used to report job wages by employer   for tax purposes or check eligibility of benefits to IRS/Government. I do NOT have SSN, Can I still do stock trading as F1 student ? While many stock brokerage firms require SSN, you are not out of luck,   if you do not have one…you will have to apply for an ITIN Number (   Individual Taxpayer Identification Number )  and can use the same when   applying for stock brokerage account.  While some of the firms accept   ITIN number, it totally depends on the stock brokering firm and you   need to check with the one that you are interested in. The key thing is that you'll need either a SSN or ITIN to open a US-based brokerage account.
The reason to do a stock split is to get the price of the stock down to an affordable range. If your stock costs $100,000 per share, you are seriously cutting in to the number of people who can afford to buy it. I can think of two reasons NOT to do a stock split. The biggest is, Why bother? If your stock is trading at a reasonable price, why change anything? It takes time and effort, which equals money, to do a stock split. If this serves no purpose, you're just wasting that effort. The other reason is that you don't want to drive your stock price down too low. Low prices are normally associated with highly speculative start-up companies, and so can give a wrong impression of your company. Also, low prices make it difficult for the price to reflect small changes. If your stock is trading at $10.00, a 1/2 of 1% change is 5 cents. But if it's trading at $1.50, a 1/2 of 1% change is a fraction of a penny. Does it go up by that penny or not? You've turned a smooth scale into a series of hurdles. &gt;Oh, but when you look at PayPal and VISA/MasterCard, there's like one. Or two.  Yeah, no. I work in credit card processing, PayPal isn't even the largest, let alone the only processing company, nor is it the only way (or even the safest or best way) to make online purchases.   And Visa/Mastercard don't control the issuing of cards to individuals, banks do. Every credit card is issued by a bank.  &gt;Denying legal use of money in a de facto monopoly is to me not morally better than denying legal use of money in a public utility monopoly.  No one is denying legal use of money and PayPal is nowhere close to having a monopoly. 1. One United States Air Force (USAF) B-2 Spirit stealth bomber over Colorado, United States of America (USA), on 9 May 2012: [4288 x 2848 pixels](http://chamorrobible.org/images/photos/gpw-200905-UnitedStatesAirForce-120509-F-VV395-106-clouds-B-2-Spirit-stealth-bomber-Colorado-20120509-huge.jpg)      Source + More High-Resolution Photos: #54 at http://chamorrobible.org/gpw/gpw-200905.htm  2. Two USAF B-2 Spirit stealth bombers over Kansas, USA, on 9 September 2011: [3502 x 2110 pixels](http://chamorrobible.org/images/photos/gpw-200905-UnitedStatesAirForce-110909-F-QH266-265-clouds-two-B-2-Spirit-stealth-bombers-Kansas-20110909-huge.jpg)      Source: #50 at http://chamorrobible.org/gpw/gpw-200905.htm  3.  One U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortress bomber leading U.S. fighter jets as they fly over the USS Nimitz (CVN 68), USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63), and USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) carrier strike groups on 14 August 2007 during Exercise Valiant Shield 2007 in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Territory of Guam, USA: [3227 x 1863 pixels](http://chamorrobible.org/images/photos/gpw-20060917-UnitedStatesNavy-070814-N-6009S-001-fighter-jets-B-52-Stratofortress-aircraft-carrier-strike-groups-Pacific-Ocean-Guam-20070814-large.jpg)      Source: #32 at http://chamorrobible.org/gpw/gpw-20060917.htm  4. A transonic U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer bomber in Southwest Asia on 16 January 2004: http://chamorrobible.org/gpw/gpw-20041216.htm and http://chamorrobible.org/gpw/gpw-20041217.htm      Source: http://chamorrobible.org/gpw/gpw-The-Spectacular-Clouds-of-the-Transonic-Flight-Regime.htm  5. Three United States Air Force long-range, strategic, heavy bombers -- B-52 Stratofortress, B-1B Lancer, B-2 Spirit -- over Guam, USA, on 17 August 2016: [3000 x 1554 pixels](https://media.defense.gov/2016/Aug/17/2001607062/-1/-1/0/160817-F-UA699-357.JPG)      Source: http://www.pacaf.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/916815/b-52-b-1-b-2s-participate-in-first-integrated-bomber-operation-in-uspacom-aor/ Russian, Ukrainian, Moldovan, Belorussian??? Sorry, still not treated the same as French/German women...  Look at student visa, Some Unis have a summer school program where you can get a student visa for three months... (like full time year studying.) Good luck! Lets look at possible use cases: If you ever converted your cryptocurrency to cash on a foreign exchange, then **YES** you had to report. That means if you ever daytraded and the US dollar (or other fiat) amount was $10,000 or greater when you went out of crypto, then you need to report. Because the regulations stipulate you need to report over $10,000 at any point in the year. If you DID NOT convert your cryptocurrency to cash, and only had them on an exchange's servers, perhaps traded for other cryptocurrency pairs, then NO this did not fall under the regulations. Example, In 2013 I wanted to cash out of a cryptocurrency that didn't have a USD market in the United States, but I didn't want to go to cash on a foreign exchange specifically for this reason (amongst others). So I sold my Litecoin on BTC-E (Slovakia) for Bitcoin, and then I sold the Bitcoin on Coinbase (USA).  (even though BTC-E had a Litecoin/USD market, and then I could day trade the swings easily to make more capital gains, but I wanted cash in my bank account AND didn't want the reporting overhead). Read the regulations yourself. Financial instruments that are reportable: Cash (fiat), securities, futures and options. Also, http://www.bna.com/irs-no-bitcoin-n17179891056/ whether it is just in the blockchain or on a server, IRS and FINCEN said bitcoin is not reportable on FBAR. When they update their guidance, it'll be in the news. The director of FinCEN is very active in cryptocurrency developments and guidance. Bitcoin has been around for six years, it isn't that esoteric and the government isn't that confused on what it is (IRS and FinCEN's hands are tied by Congress in how to more realistically categorize cryptocurrency) Although at this point in time, there are several very liquid exchanges within the United States, such as the one NYSE/ICE hosts (Coinbase). Yes, this is a way to avoid the pattern day trader regulation. The only downside being that your broker will have different commission rates and your capital will be split amongst several places. In the US, illegal. Giving free investment advice (opinions) is really hard to get arrested for. Might lose you a friend, but nothing that would get cross-wise with the Securities and Exchange Commission. That said, I would never put those opinions in writing. "Not really. It's good to supplement a shitty school and bad GPA with, a nice thing to pursue and great at teaching you finance if you're not a finance major.  It will undeniably look good on a resume, however, it will not make or break you, outside of possibly you being in Top 3 internship candidates and you're the only CFA candidate.  It's practically useless for trading, but a friend of mine at a brokerage is getting his so that he can have more ""authority"" with clients, although, he is at a foreign brokerage and the clients tend to need that assurance that the broker knows what they're doing."