Price reached the edge
The Bollinger Bands define the statistical boundary of recent price movement — where price has been contained most of the time. The upper band is the outer edge of normal upside distribution. The lower band is its mirror. On most bars, price stays inside.
When price closes outside the band in the direction of an active trade permission, something has changed. The move has pushed beyond where the recent range said it should go. That is the event T1 names. Not a prediction — a confirmation that the move the entry permission anticipated has materialized and reached its first statistical boundary.
The condition
Two requirements, both must be true on the same bar:
Call T1 and Put T1
T1 takes the direction of the active permission.
It fires once — and records a level
T1 fires exactly once per campaign — on the first bar price closes outside the band after permission. Subsequent bars that also close beyond the band are not additional T1 events. The first pierce is the event. After that, T1 is done.
At the bar T1 fires, the price level at that moment is recorded. That recorded level is not just a marker — it becomes the threshold the ♚King must exceed. The King fires only if price closes beyond the T1 level on a later bar. T1 sets the benchmark. The King answers whether the move continued past it.
What the pierce tells you
Closing outside the Bollinger Band is a statistical statement. The bands are set at two standard deviations from the recent mean — a range that contains the vast majority of normal price movement. A bar that closes beyond the upper band has moved further than the recent distribution predicts. The move is exceptional by recent standards.
For a campaign that started with entry permission, that exceptional move is in the direction the signal declared. T1 is the confirmation that the entry direction was not just structurally valid — the move actually extended to the outer edge of normal range. That is different from a position that is profitable but hasn't moved far enough to say anything.
Why it matters for options
When T1 fires, a call position has a decision to make. The underlying has moved beyond the band in the direction of the trade — the position has real value and the move has reached the first statistical target. Exiting at T1 locks in a confirmed, above-band move. Holding for the ♚King means waiting for price to close beyond the T1 level itself — the extended move.
T1 without the King is still a valid campaign outcome. The band was reached. The move was real. Whether the King follows depends on whether the underlying sustains extension past T1's level — and the opposite side earning permission before that happens will close the campaign without one.
The ♛Queen declared the side. The ♖Rook broke structure. T1 confirms the move reached the band. Each event in the sequence answers a different question about how the session is resolving.
On any chart
Add a Bollinger Band indicator to your chart — 20-period, 2 standard deviations is the standard setting. Once you have an active entry signal in a direction, watch for the first bar where price closes beyond the corresponding band: above the upper band for a call trade, below the lower band for a put.
When that bar prints, note the close. That is your T1 level. From that point, you are watching for a subsequent bar to close even further in the same direction — beyond your recorded T1 close. If it does before the other side becomes active, the ♚King has fired.