Wanted to add to this that there is very little that would stop IRS from taking IRA status off your account (unless you're Peter Thiel) and forcing you to sell all assets and pay capital gains if you committed a prohibited transaction. An example of such IRA violation that's fairly common is buying rental property with IRA and utilizing it for personal use.

Oh, I'd believe it! In that case even fairly valued options would be a no-go; you'd have to buy them from someone else: probably tricky, doubly so for incentive options, and it sounds like buying publicly traded stock has a major advantage here.