Where can I download real-time quotes

Hi - first post on this forum.

I am a programmer, and I've written my own programs for backtesting systems. In case you are wondering why I do that instead of using metatrader or other package, or whether my testing is trustworthy, let me assure you that I've been doing this for a living for many years (this specific kind of programming). I've consulted for dozens of corporations, including 2 companies managing fixed income portfolios that were 1st and 3rd in size globally at the time I was working for them. I have more control over the testing algorithms when I write them myself.

The problem I have now is that I have done back testing with historic data, but I need to do forward testing with live data. (When I was consulting for the companies, they always had the data feeds - I never had to search for them.) What's a good source for real-time quotes that I can directly dowload to my application without using an intermediary app like metatrader?

Thanks for your help

Why don't you just use a DDE feed from your broker. Almost all brokers offer a DDE

I have done/am doing the same thing.

I'm using historic ticks from GAIN Capital http://ratedata.gaincapital.com. They offer a API which allows you to easily receive ticks (and place orders) from any modern language. Other APIs available are MT3 (FXDD), VTAPI (CMS), OandA, Ducascopy etc.

Ultimately though, like smjones mentioned, you can use DDE with pretty much all brokers.