Sheesh! This is yet another example of why I say that if you're a disciplined trader/investor working with a reliable trading/investing system, most workplace retirement plans will make you feel like an advanced swimmer being told you have to use the baby pool!

Have you spoken to any of your fellow plan participants about this? If there's more than one of you who'd like access to Fidelity's BrokerageLink feature, which is available in 401(k) plans at several other companies that use Fidelity as their record-keeper, you might get more traction. Even if it's just you, I would try finding an ally in HR. Oftentimes, the head of HR is instrumental in a company's decision-making process regarding its 401(k). If the user agreement for BrokerageLink requires you to agree that your employer has no liability for any poor choices you make with your money inside the brokerage account (and I can't imagine it wouldn't), then that would be a boon for your employer, because it would lighten their burden as a fiduciary of the money held inside the 401(k). (I'm told that's the primary motivation for employers to allow their employees to open a brokerage account inside the company's 401(k)). If you can convince someone in HR that this move would reduce the company's liability while also making the employees happy, they might be motivated to escalate it up to someone with enough influence to make it happen.