An ordinary laptop can be usefull but you don't need a special one. Even it is possible to make everyting with a tablet or over a smart phone app via android or ios.
Virus protection is fine to protect your information not only for trade purposes so Kaspersky is also fine about that. I am not familiar with Mac so I can not say anything about that.
But I used Dell before as laptop so it is fine also HP or another one can be fine