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.