Four questions, not five asset classes
A treasury desk does not think in "equity / debt / alternatives." It thinks in problems. Every instrument below answers exactly one of these.
Where the real wall sits
Notice what the gate rail exposes. Interest-rate futures are retail-open; the interest-rate swap that does the same job is not. Currency futures are retail-open; currency swaps are not. REITs are open; the private credit fund holding similar cash flows needs ₹1 crore.
The dividing line is not ticket size and not sophistication. It is OTC versus exchange. Once a contract is standardised, cleared, and margined by a clearing corporation, the regulator can let retail in. Where the contract is bilateral and negotiated, it stays shut — because the counterparty risk cannot be socialised.
That is the two-gate test wearing different clothes: the exchange is the economics gate opening.
Two flags for your own book
HUF exclusion: G-Secs, SDLs, and T-Bills are retail-open through RBI Retail Direct — but the HUF is not eligible for an RDG account. Your sovereign floor for the HUF must route through broker demat, not Retail Direct. The gate marker says "open"; it is open to your PAN, not to both of your PANs.
MLD tax change: market-linked debentures lost their long-term capital-gains treatment under the Finance Act 2023 — gains are now taxed at slab as short-term regardless of holding period. Any MLD pitch still quoting the old 10% LTCG maths is quoting a dead rule.
Recall drill
Answer before you open. If it doesn't come in ten seconds, that's the gap worth marking.