FX trading visa Thai bank legal?

[jerichhoo]

I am currently on a Student visa and I managed to open a kasikorn account.

I want to use this account to fund the broker ig.com/sg

 

1. I am legally allowed to do this?

2. Once my student visa runs out and i return to tourist visa, would using the Thai bank account to trade fx be considered to be 'work', hence be illegal?

 

Thanks for the answers

[elviajero]

1. Yes.

2. No.

[jerichhoo]

Ok so basically, I can fund with my thai bank regardless of my visa status without any problem, right?

Is there any catch, or anything I should take care of?

 

Thx for the answers.

[ubonjoe]

9 minutes ago, jerichhoo said:

Ok so basically, I can fund with my thai bank regardless of my visa status without any problem, right?

Is there any catch, or anything I should take care of?

Your  status makes no difference since they are both basically the same. The non-ed visa does not give you any additional rights privileges than a tourist visa does.

Just keep quiet about what you are doing.

[RBOP]

I dont think you will be able to do online forex via the Kasikorn website if funding an account outside Thailand as they require a WP to set it up. You should be able to do it at the counter but be prepared to show how you got the money in the first place. 

[seeallandmore]

2 hours ago, RBOP said:

I dont think you will be able to do online forex via the Kasikorn website if funding an account outside Thailand as they require a WP to set it up. You should be able to do it at the counter but be prepared to show how you got the money in the first place. 

He will be trading using ig.com/sg Not Kasikorn.. 

simple way just fund a FX broker back in your country by bank transfer... nothing to do with Thailand

[khunPer]

I aree with both @elviajero and @ubonjoe, as long as it's private speculation for your own funds – just like speculation for private savings in stocks and alike – but always good advise to keep low profile on how you're making your money.

[jerichhoo]

@seeallandmore the point of funding with a Thai bank is because I want to avoid  using my home country bank account.

 

Actually, I forgot that without a WP, I cannot make any international wire transfers with Kbank (I can't even do a wire to my own oversees account). Only bangkok bank allows this regardless of what my visa status is. (BKK bank opens a traveler account on tourist visa, and I can wire for up to 25k$ without proving the source of funds)

 

So, wiring money outside of Thailand is the easy part: Go to BKK bank, wire any amount < 25k$.

What I'm worried about now is, when I will want to wire the money back from ig.com into my Thai account, will I run into trouble? (I only ever funded both my Thai bank accounts at Kbank and BKK via bx.in.th which is a Thai Bitcoin exchange, not a foreign entity.)

[White Tiger]

As I understand it "Trading" these days tends not to be the actual buying and selling of assets, but more usually it means placing a highly leveraged bet on the price movement of a particular asset. As such to some people it seems to have more in common with gambling than with investing. 

 

I appreciate that many private individuals who engage in the activity of trading consider themselves to have specialist or technical knowledge or skills in relation to financial markets and that they are using their skill and knowledge to form a view of how the market price of the asset will change; but for some observers taking a position on that price movement is still placing a bet.

 

The law in Thailand is clear on gambling.  I do not know if Thai law regarding gambling makes exceptions for trading in financial assets, or if Thai legislators - those write the legislation and those who enforce it - understand trading to be a form of gambling.  The lack of any action in this area suggests to me they take the view that it is a form of investment.  (As most other countries also do, I think.)

 

Whatever the legal position, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that many in Thailand (foreign and Thai) engage in this activity, as many people are happy to make a distinction in their own minds between gambling, and financial speculating by trading in consumer financial derivatives. Many people, I think, are happy to define financial derivatives trading as "investment" - perhaps the fact that so many professional investors also indulge in trading gives it an air of respectability and makes it easier to pigeon hole it as investing rather than gambling?

 

To my mind trading can scarcely be classed as working unless you consider yourself to be a professional trader, who does this to make a living and so you declare your trading earnings for income tax purposes.  For someone who dabbles in trading and sees it more as a hobby or a way to make a little extra money, but for whom it is not your sole or main source of income, I would say it isn't work - in this situation if you are trading while in Thailand a work permit ought not to be a consideration. In Thailand, as I see it, a bigger consideration might be the law relating to gambling and if there are any exceptions made for trading, or whether Thai law defines trading as investing.  I reckon many people probably just assume trading is classed as investing as far as Thai law is concerned and so carry on regardless.  As Ubon Joe said earlier, best to keep quiet about what you are doing - a work permit may be the least of your worries.  Good luck with your trades.