i'm not sure about nasdaq software for stock exchange but if you are wondering about buying and selling stocks, if you buy through brokerage they will let you open account as long as you are here legally. there might be some that don't check your status but i'm not aware of it. in today's world of cheap online brokerage, it's very easy to buy and sell stocks. abt your chinese friend, i've read a lot of stories lately about the average yang and yings in china going nuts over their stock market. their new law passed recently made it possible for people to buy stocks without going through brokerage. so the stock frenzy for average chinese has just begun. most stock gurus in the US think this will cause the chinese market to crash as it was the case in the US when they first allowed general public to invest individually. and i think they have a valid point but i don't think china's market is crashing anytime soon, just on the simple fact that there are probably 10 times more chinese investing population than there were american investing population. so you see the lehman's logic there HAHAHA