I was signing up at a online brokerage - May i know what is the difference between an accredited investor and a retail investor?

Hey Anon! Allow me to ease your confusion!

If you search online, the definition of an accredited is pretty vague across countries. Thankfully in SG's context we know MAS calls the shots so we can refer to their definition.

Listed are the criterion for being an accredited investor

i) Individuals with a personal net asset in excess of $2 million;
ii) Individuals with an income of not less than $300,000 in the past 12 months;
iii) Corporations with net assets exceeding $10 million in value, in their most recent balance sheet;
iv) Trustees of trusts that the MAS approves; or
v) Persons that the MAS approves

If you are registering a account on behalf of a company/bank/any kind of business dealings, you might want to read further into the rules because you most likely will be classified as a Accredited Investor.

TLDR; Most of us are definitely not considered Accredited Investors. So unless you're earning quite a huge salary, you can go ahead and register your personal acc as a regular retail investor.

Retail investors are just normal investors. Accredited investors depending on the brokerage, it could be people who have high net asset in millions or high income.