There is a difference between licensing the rights to use the data with the data owner (the exchange) and buying a service to gain access to the data (your vendor, i.e., QUODD).
You pay the exchange for the license to the data and your vendor (i.e., QUODD) to access that same data. You could take a feed directly from the exchange, but not only would you have to pay the exchange for the delivery of this data (port fee, connection fee, etc.), but you would need to spend a lot of time integrating that feed with your systems.
Learn More Guide to Understanding Exchange Agreements.
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