Robinhood in IB
For those working in IB, do banks allow you to have a robinhood account while you're working or are you forced to use a specific brokerage? Also what about robo advisors?
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Doesn't matter as long as you check with Karen from compliance before making any trades
is it harder to get individual stocks cleared over etfs
My bank requires specific brokerages to be used.
which ones do they allow?
I believe its Charles Schwab/TD, my bank specific one, and Fidelity.
Ditto to this
If your bank owns a retail/WM brokerage (which is most BBs) you will probably have to use that platform.
Not sure how it works at boutiques.
Most banks that I'm aware of require specific brokerages. Schwab has a robo investing platform if your bank doesn't approve Wealthfront / Betterment / others.
do bankers even have time to research to make trades, or are they keeping all their money in cash
Just do all your research on the job. So if you are working on a sell side for say, a mid-size public company, just snap up a lot of shares right before the transaction announcement is released.
^ exactly, it’s literally free easy money
Some dope isn't going to realize this is sarcastic.
WF here, Robinhood not allowed. I use TD Ameritrade and have to clear all trades through an internal system. We have a restricted list with specific requirements for securities involved in active / recently closed mandates. Additionally, we're not allowed to buy / sell names in our coverage group, but can buy names in other coverage groups if we don't have access to MNPI. We can trade in a name in our coverage group as long as they're not a client. All equity purchases require a 30 day minimum hold. ETF's do not require a 30 day minimum hold or prior approval. Ex: I can day trade SPY options if i wanted to without pre-clearing, though it'd probably be a terrible idea trying to balance work with day trading.
any reason why daytrading SPY options doesnt need approval? that's pretty much all I do. Also is this likely just a WF thing?
trading options with a 30 day required holding period? Lol good luck
JPM has a list of approved brokers, Robinhood isnt on it (yet)
is Etrade on JPM approved list?
Barclays only allows us to trade broad-based index ETFs and mutual funds.
Wait so how do you guys invest your money?
In broad based ETFs and mutual funds...
VTSAX, VOO, etc.
:( are you serious? So no individual stock trades AT ALL? Can't even investing a sector ETF like biotech or industrials?
Single names are a no (or heavily restricted at some banks). But since your biotech and industrials ETFs aren’t single stocks then they’re a maybe. ETF in your coverage area should be a no and even if not a definite no then I wouldn’t fuck with them. Also, notice the mention of broad-based - it can’t be an ETF with like 10 stocks in it. Same principle of MNPI, conflicts of interest, etc. You have MNPI on a single name in a 10 stock ETF is different than having MNPI on a single name in SPY
Some banks may let you trade single names but you’ll have to get it cleared and checked against restricted lists and other shit
Would something like QQQ be allowed if you worked in tmt since it’s so heavily weighted in tech but still diversified?
yes
Serious question here: what’s to stop someone from just giving money to a friend outside of finance and having them trade on the MNPI for you and give them some of the profits?
Nothing. Just hope it's a good friend and make sure it's (physical) cash only.
Idk Bud Fox probably the SEC...
First of all MNPI isn’t just laying around like pack of skittles. So don’t make it out to be as if endless company “secrets” are just at the average Joe’s disposal. This leads to second layer.
The second layer is enforcement and involves SEC algos (just use a basic IF statement for an account as green as your friend), whistleblower complaint incentives ($$), tip from the pissed off trade counterparty you raked over the coals, etc.
If it was easy and you could get away with it, everybody would do it. I think the first part is more important than the enforcement aspect. At the end of the day, MNPI is hard to come by and eventually it becomes public. That window of time to act unlawfully becomes fairly straight forward to monitor, especially for accounts who do not trade frequently (your “friend”) and the recent large data advancements in technology/AI.
That IF statement is exactly how easy it is to find suspicious activity. If a stock went up a lot due to MNPI, a simple IF statement regarding any new accounts that solely invested in this stock all of a sudden or a massive investment the day before the release of the info (or a few days before to be safe) would yield a lot of suspicious accounts.
You should read Den of Thieves.
do most banks care about trading spy/qqq/iwm options? Pretty much daytrading indexes
Check with your local bnk tha tyou work at.
side note, there was a really good ama on reddit (wsb?) of a guy who was caught doing insider trading and spent x years in jail, anyone remember it?
https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/ajfpcr/qa_i_was_prosec…
Strangely, FX trading is totally kosher where I’m at
$500 position in Zoom needs paperwork but a $100,000 bet against the dollar? Go for it.
Does all of this still apply if you're working on the public side (S&T) or are an intern without FINRA registration?
Yes
So if I have money in Vanguard funds at Vanguard in a Roth IRA, and say Vanguard isn't on the list of approved brokers, I'd have to roll the account over elsewhere??? Seems unnecessary
So can you invest in equities or no?
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