What you had read is true.....It is our beloveds FM way to increase litigation even more....It would now be a cat mouse game between the department and the assessee....
See first let me inform you that this circular has two basis distinctions....
One....You may be called a trader....You may so be called if you have done heavy buying and selling....bet it intra day or not....it does not matter....what matter is the intention with which the shares were bought....If they were bought with an intention to keep them for the long term then they would not be trader and be classified as investor....If you are a trader then the income is chargeable to tax in the head of business and tax payable @ 30%....But there may be a benefit in it.....


.....If you socks in hand which are lower than your cost then they would be valued at that and accordingly your closing stock would be less which would mean lower tax outgo...
Second...The opposite of trader is an investor...Here again the intention of purchasing is the key.....
One thing good that this circular has said is that a person can have two portfolios.....that he can be a trader in one set of shares and can be a investor for another set of shares....
and finally just for your information......CBDT circulars and not binding on the assessee but are binding on the department....therefore you can take out the beneficial portion from the circular and throw the rest away....