The distinction between retail and institutional trading has always been partly a matter of access. Institutional desks at Singapore’s major banks and asset managers have operated with analytical infrastructure, execution capabilities, and data resources that retail participants could observe from a distance but rarely approximate in practice. That gap has not closed entirely, and pretending otherwise would misrepresent what retail trading actually involves. What has changed is that certain tools once confined to professional environments have become available to self-directed traders through platforms that sit within reach of anyone with a funded account and the discipline to use them properly. MT5 represents the most significant example of that shift for…