The short answer
Gaming the simulation means profiting from how our platform is built rather than from how the market actually moves. Any strategy whose edge comes from exploiting the simulation layer, meaning how prices and orders are processed inside the platform, the timing of execution, or the way ticks are recorded, is prohibited. Trade the market and you have nothing to worry about.
The umbrella principle
UZO has one broad conduct rule that sits above every named restriction: anything that games the simulation is prohibited. We do not try to list every clever trick, because clever tricks evolve. Instead we ask a single question of any strategy: does the profit come from a genuine market view, or from a flaw in how the simulation processes orders and prices?
If your edge would still work against a live broker filling real orders in the real market, it is legitimate. If your edge only exists because you are interacting with a simulated execution layer, it is gaming the simulation, and it is not allowed.
Named prohibited examples
Two patterns are called out by name because they are the most common ways traders try to exploit the simulation layer rather than the market.
Pattern | What it exploits |
Latency and HFT arbitrage | Small timing differences between price updates, capturing a quote that is briefly stale rather than predicting where the market will go. |
Tick exploit and tick scalping | The way individual ticks are recorded or sequenced in the simulation, harvesting tiny moves that depend on platform mechanics rather than a genuine market edge. As a guide, an average holding time below 2 minutes is likely to be treated as tick scalping. |
These are examples, not the full list. Any technique built on the same idea, extracting value from the simulation rather than from the market, falls under the umbrella rule even if it has a different name.
Why the simulation layer is protected
UZO runs on real, live market prices across forex, metals, crypto, indices, shares and energies, with more than 1,300 instruments available and leverage of up to 1:100. Every trader sees the same prices and trades under the same conditions. No live capital is at risk, which is what makes this a simulated, or Syn-Fi, environment. The market moves are real. The capital is simulated.
That design is what keeps the playing field level. When someone targets the simulation layer instead of the market, they are not out-trading anyone, they are extracting rewards from a mechanic that has nothing to do with skill. Protecting the simulation layer protects every honest trader and keeps the 90/10 profit share meaningful, because rewards should reflect genuine trading ability.
What is clearly allowed
The rule targets exploitation, not sophistication. Serious, automated and aggressive strategies are welcome, as long as your edge comes from the market.
Expert Advisors (EAs), trading bots and algorithms, run on an account you personally own and set with your own distinctive parameters
Custom indicators and your own tooling
Copy trading between accounts that you personally own, again with unique settings rather than identical copied configurations
News, FOMC and earnings trading
Holding positions overnight
Holding over the weekend where the product allows it
None of these are gaming the simulation, because none of them depend on a platform flaw. You are welcome to run a fully automated strategy on an account you own, provided each account carries its own distinctive settings rather than identical copied configurations, and your edge would also hold against a real market rather than feeding on timing or tick mechanics.
How to self-check your strategy
Before you scale up a method, run it through these questions.
Would this still be profitable against a live broker filling real orders in the real market? If yes, it is legitimate.
Does the edge depend on price timing, stale quotes, or the exact way ticks are recorded? If yes, it is gaming the simulation.
Am I expressing a view on where price is going, or am I harvesting a mechanical artefact? A view is fine. An artefact is not.
If I had to explain the edge to another trader, would it sound like market insight or like a platform loophole?
The simple test
If your edge comes from the market, you are fine. If your edge comes from the simulation, it is prohibited. Should you be genuinely unsure about a specific method, ask us first at [email protected] rather than risk an account.
Related
What is allowed and what is prohibited
Why are HFT and latency arbitrage prohibited?
What counts as tick exploiting or tick scalping?
Simulated trading, explained