use options on the stock of another company that owns options on the 1st company Not viable -- think how many options e.g. Google would have to own on e.g. Mic

use options on the stock of another company that owns options on the 1st company Not viable -- think how many options e.g. Google would have to own on e.g. Microsoft to meaningfully move the needle at Google. I think you're right overall, though. "Buy exposure to a symbol you are not allowed to trade in." is easy if a) there exists an ETF which you are allowed to trade in, b) you know what the constituents of the ETF are and what their weighting is (trivial), c) you can program a computer to successfully do 4th grade math, d) you are good at trade execution (highly non-trivial).