The short answer
The prices are real, the capital is simulated, and the rewards are real money. You trade live market prices on a simulated balance, so no live capital is ever at risk. When you generate simulated profit, UZO pays you a real cash reward equal to 90% of that profit. We call this the Syn-Fi model: real market behaviour, no live-capital risk.
If you are skeptical, good. A model that pairs the word simulated with the words real payout deserves scrutiny. Here is the whole thing, end to end, with nothing hidden.
Why the prices and conditions are genuinely real
Nothing about the market you trade is invented. Prices for forex, metals, crypto, indices, stocks and energies stream into your platform from third-party data feeds, the same feeds professional traders rely on. When EUR/USD moves, gold gaps, or an index reacts to news, you see it tick for tick, in real time.
The trading conditions are real too. Real spreads and real commissions are applied uniformly to every account, so the cost of trading mirrors a live broker rather than an easy sandbox. We do not quote fixed spread or commission numbers here because they move with the live market and differ by instrument. You can see the exact current figures for any symbol on your platform and dashboard.
The practical point: a strategy that works on UZO is one that has been tested against genuine market behaviour, genuine volatility, and genuine costs. There is no easier version of the market hiding behind the scenes.
Why the capital is simulated (and what that protects)
The balance you trade is simulated. Your orders execute against live prices inside our environment, but no order is ever routed to the underlying market with live firm capital behind it. This is deliberate, and it protects two parties at once.
It protects you. You can never lose your own money to the market. Your only financial commitment is the one-time evaluation fee, and that fee is refunded on your first reward payout. Beyond that fee, a bad trading day costs you nothing in real dollars.
It lets us measure skill cleanly. Because the firm is not exposed to live market risk on your trades, we can offer large simulated balances (up to $1M on instant products, scaling further over time) and focus entirely on one question: can you trade well under real conditions?
Simulated is not fake
Simulated capital means the dollars at risk in the market are not real. Everything you are tested on, the prices, the spreads, the commissions, the discipline required, is real. The simulation removes your downside, not the difficulty.
Where your real reward actually comes from
This is the question that matters most: if the capital is simulated, where does a real cash payout come from?
Your reward is paid from the firm's own funds. It is never drawn from other traders' simulated balances, and it is never tied to a live position opened against your account. The honest reality is that the test is as hard as the real market, so most evaluations do not pass. The traders who do pass, and who keep trading profitably, are exactly the ones we want to pay, because they prove the model works. Our incentives and yours point the same way: we win when you win.
The math is fixed and simple. You keep 90% of the simulated profit you generate; the firm keeps 10%. That split never changes with account size. When you request a payout, approval typically happens in under an hour and funds clear within 12 hours, by bank transfer or crypto.
You keep 90%
Generate simulated profit, keep 90% of it as real money, at every account size. Your evaluation fee is refunded on your first payout, so a successful trader's true cost to start is zero.
What this model is designed to reward
The Syn-Fi model exists to find and reward genuine trading skill, and to do it without anyone risking money they cannot afford to lose. By stripping out live-capital danger while keeping every real-market difficulty in place, UZO turns a hard question (who can actually trade?) into a fair, measurable one.
That is why our rules reward discipline rather than gimmicks. There is no consistency rule. You are free to use EAs and bots, custom indicators, copy trading from your own accounts, news trading, and overnight and weekend holds. What is banned is anything that games the simulation rather than the market: latency or HFT arbitrage and tick-exploit or tick-scalping strategies. We pay for skill against real prices, not for tricks against our infrastructure.
If you want to see the firm behind this, our operating entities and licensing are listed openly, and KYC identity verification (via Veriff) only happens after you pass, never to get started. Real prices, simulated capital, real rewards. That is the whole model, and there is nothing else behind the curtain.
Related
The 90/10 split explained
What makes UZO different (and why you can trust it)
Is my money at risk?