In banks it wasn't so much the rules in my experience (although they do make it very difficult to express a negative view on a sector or stock and the minimum hold periods can make life a bit more difficult) as the fact that as soon as you want to make an interesting trade in a single stock and ask for permission, very often you find out the bank has a conflict of interest issue (at least, that's what I assumed it was - obviously they wouldn't tell you why you didn't get permission) which means you aren't permitted to do so. From this perspective, funds are much much better.
Yes, that 30-day lock up on stocks is killah. I still remember the days of DBL, before the insider trading scandals, where they had these private partnerships that were offered to everybody--from the ceo to the mail room guys--like getting a monthly bonus. Of course, mbs and junk bonds were big and making big $ during the mid-80s. What a time that was.
Currently working in asset management and the trading rules are a killer. I used to trade options on equity indexes and commodities. These were the only derivative products I could trade short term (less than 30 days w/ profit). It would have been very beneficial to not have to deal with tons of overhead of talking with compliance every week about what each security was because it wasn't in the database.
Even when buying individual equities I would get emails indicating my trades were flagged for further analysis. It isn't enjoyable to be good at managing money but unable to do so without fear of punishment.
Even though I follow the rules, the process made it too difficult to manage. It is a real opportunity cost because in order to invest aggressively I would have to quit.
Maybe I should work in finance.. I'm locked out of making apps/games because of my day job, but my investing hobby is going as badly as the average WallStreetBets user
