Thanks for all the help

tr8er 

If you don't have an account, you have to pay the pro fees, so you have to pay $ 105.-- instead $ 5.-- for each CME-exchange.

xplorer 

I don't know that you can access the market data services without a broker. I may be wrong but I doubt that's possible, especially for retail traders. Your best bet may be checking with some reputable brokers (there are a few here on FIO that rate highly) and ask them directly.

Some trading platforms are tightly bound to brokers, or are in some cases only available through some brokers (NinjaTrader, for instance), but you can indeed get live CME data by paying the monthly professional fee of, currently, $105. The Sierra Chart trading platform offers this, as I recall, and I'm sure it's available elsewhere.

It's a terrible deal, obviously, since there are brokers that just will pick up the $5 retail fee and some will pick up the trading platform fee. Check around.

It's a worse deal than it seems, because "CME" is not just one exchange. Within CME Group you have four "exchanges," due to previous mergers, and you will pay the $105 (or $5 for retail) for each that you need access to: CME (still using the old name), CBOT, NYMEX and COMEX. So suppose you were interested in:

ES (S&P 500 futures) -- that's CME
YM (Dow futures) -- that's CBOT
GC (Gold futures) -- that's COMEX
CL (Crude Oil) -- that's NYMEX

Total for all together, $420.

Not a deal. Bottom line: open an account.

There are independent data feed companies -- IQFeed comes to mind, and is highly thought of -- but I don't know if they will supply data without an account (if they do, then CME will get their $105 per exchange), and they do have their own fees.

I doubt if you need a separate feed, in addition to or as a substitute for what your broker will provide, although obviously some traders use them and have their reasons. Someone else may explain the various pros and cons... but this may be something to look into down the road. Or you can use the Search box in the upper right corner of any page to see what has already been posted on the forum on this topic.

Bob.

Really appreciate all the info