So after a bit of time paper trading based on indicators and complicated ideas i have found no strategy that has been profitable for more than a week haha.
As a change i have just scraped everything and just traded with 3 time frames and nothing else. I try to catch the middle section of big moves by looking at highs and lows and predicting direction. After a few days of being too greedy at times and too conservative other times. I noticed a goal of 8 to 16 ticks a day is what ive been getting. I trade only mon to fri 9:30 to 11:30 est and call it a day early when i hit my goal of 8 to 16 ticks. Ive been doing okay on sim for the past 2 and a half weeks now, but i can not tell if im just getting lucky or if im actually begining to see price clearly with my chart naked and strategy simple. I would love some constructive criticism thanks all.

Im also planning on attempting the 50k combine at tst and am worried i may fail due to their strict risk management should i scale my position down from 5 and just make smaller profits to add a cushion for any bad days i may have? Also should i learn how yo scale into trades and ride trends or is that a more advanced strategy i should learn later.

I notice there is almost no mention of risk management in your above statements, and I recommend you build from the ground up any strategy by putting primacy on the risk management.

Statistically, you can take almost a 50/50 system and get it to at least be profitable over the long run with solid risk management. Conversely, you can take a 90% accurate system and run it into the ground with poor risk management.

Your goal should be to get so good at risk management that, at least as a day trader, your position is no worse than break even when it's all said and done.