My free advice...... (worth every penny you are paying for it....
)
1) I assume you really mean "trading" (multiple trades a day) vs "investing" (Buy and hold for days, weeks, months or years). If you intend to trade you will need 25,000 in your account to comply with the pattern day trader rule. This only applies to stocks; if you trade futures the requirements are lower.
2) Do not sign up for a 4000.00+ "trading course" from some guru. If their system worked why wouldn't they be trading it instead of making a living off of "students"? Sure, there are a few good mentors out there but from reading many trading forums the people that payed for the courses seem to feel ripped off for the most part.
3) Start reading.
StockCharts.com - ChartSchool
This website will give you a good overview of technical and fundamentals. I do not suggest you "join" it, just look at the free stuff.
You can also do free stock screening here;
FINVIZ.com - Stock Screener
4) Set up a free "paper trading account" at the broker of your choice. You can practice before you commit real money.
5) When you start, start small. Don't jump into one trade with everything in your account. Don't shoot for home runs, take the base hits. Use good risk management. From what I have been told 90% of all traders fail. I believe they fail because trading stocks is perceived to be "easy" and doesn't require much work.
6) I would give trading futures serious consideration.
1) Lower capital requirements for active trading.
2) Increased leverage.
3) More favorable taxation (60/40 rule) and easier tax filing.
4) Fairer marketplace. Insider trading, company announcements, surprise analyst upgrades or downgrades and "Tweets" from market manipulators do not happen in the futures markets.
5) Liquidity. If you stick to very liquid futures contracts your bid ask spreads are usually tight.
6) Commission costs are much lower for futures than for stocks.