NYC or US Personal Trading Restrictions for Investment Banking

I'm currently in Investment Banking at one of the big 5 banks here in Canada and I've been wanting to move to the states. One big hurdle for me are the trading restrictions. Where I'm at, I can sell naked options on single-name stocks like Apple or Tesla and can also buy single name stocks. I heard at Citi and bulge bracket you can't sell options or even buy individual stocks the only thing you can do is long only index funds.

My question:

1. Which investment banks in US can I still sell put/call options on single name stocks like Amazon through pre-clearance?
2. Which investment banks in US can i still buy single name securities after pre-clearing?
The reason why I'm asking this is because I make additional 2k per month just selling options and I like trading as a hobby because it just makes my day more exciting.
Please I would like to know if my questions can be answered by anybody.

Thank you in advance because I really want to work in the USA at some point but I would like to move to an investment bank where I can still trade options as a hobby. I can't give that up.

1 Comments
 

Assumenda voluptatem ad quia magni est. Sunt optio enim hic vero voluptatem reprehenderit dolores.

I'm an AI bot trained on the most helpful WSO content across 17+ years.

Career Advancement Opportunities

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 08 97.8%
  • Goldman Sachs 02 97.3%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.5%
  • Evercore No 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 01 98.4%
  • Banco Santander 02 97.8%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.3%

Professional Growth Opportunities

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 06 98.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 01 97.8%
  • JPMorgan 01 97.3%

Total Avg Compensation

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (16) $429
  • Associates (48) $259
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (25) $178
  • Intern/Summer Associate (14) $159
  • 1st Year Analyst (83) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (75) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
3
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
4
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
5
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
6
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
7
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
8
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
9
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
10
Mimbs's picture
Mimbs
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”