Mikeno,
My advice as a beginner is to spend some time educating yourself on the various markets and the many ways to trade them.
www.investopedia.com is a great free resource for this.
After you've spent some time with this I strongly recommend that you figure out some goals for yourself. This may seem premature at this point but I assure you that this will help you focus on what you want to do. With so much information out there, indicators, methods etc. it can be overwhelming. Determining how much time you have and are willing to spend trading and what your percent return goals are will help you tremendously.
For example I have a trading friend who only has about 30 minutes a night to review the markets. When he and I started talking we discussed what trading setups might work for him. He now has a successful way of trading (he only takes a few trades a month) and he is seeing returns that satisfy his trading needs. I on the other hand could not trade the way he does, because my account return requirements are different and I have a lot more time (and the interest) to spend with the markets. As a daytrader I average more trades in a single day then he does all month. We both make money, we both achieve our goals, however, we are both very different traders.
So when you've reviewed some info out there begin to ask yourself some questions and see what you can come up with?
1) How many hours per day do you have to trade?
2) Do you work during the day or can you watch the market all day long?
3) What amount of dollars or percent on your account do you NEED to make?
4) What amount of dollars or percent on your account do you desire to make?
5) Do you like programming?
6) Do you like placing trades yourself?
7) Do you have any other desires from the market other than money (fame, being right, etc.)?
Suggestions
Beginner books?
I suggest Trading in the Zone (Mark Douglas) and Trading Day by Day (Chick Goslin)
Platform needed?
Lots of choices here. What markets will you trade? Are you going to be programming the platform for automated trading? Are costs an issue?
A free platform I suggest are NinjaTrader (you'll need data from your broker - even demo data is good). NinjaTrader is free as long as you are doing simulated trading. And it's $60 a month when you go live. Not too bad. You can do automated trading, order execution, charting etc. with NT.
Data feed?
Your broker may be the cheapest feed. eSignal feed is good but $$$.
Broker?
What are you trading? Are you trading multiple market types (futures and forex for example)? I trade MBTrading (for futures and stocks) and I know Avery and many others regard EFX (a subsidiary of MBTrading) very good for Forex.
Software?
Other software I recommend. Excel. Seriously.
Ability to write code?
Do you wish to be an automated trader? Then you'll need MAD skilzs for programming. Personally I'm a hack. I have other guys program for me. I'm too busy making money trading. It's all about what you want to do.
Opinion on starting capital?
Well the minimum I know of for Forex is $400 and the minimum for Futures is generally $5,000. Yet actually this really comes back to goal setting. If you need to put $1000k on the table every month to feed your family from your trading account it is a lot easier to do with a $100k account than a $5k account. The first requires a modest 1% a month return and the latter requires a 20% a month return.
Final words of advice.
There are at least 1000 ways to trade badly in the markets. There are at least 100 ways to trade well. EVERYONE and their grandmother will try to convince you/sell you their way. My personal opinion is that 99.9997% of the methods/indicators that are for sale aren't worth $4,999.99 (or whatever they're being sold for). Why? Because indicators/setups alone do not a great trader make! You are the secret to your success. That means that you alone must spend time with the markets deciding what works for you. Like being a Brain Surgeon experience counts for so very much in this endeavor.
Edward