Earnings season is fast approaching. Roughly 40% of all companies in the S&P 500 will be reporting numbers between now and the end of January. But in options world, another season is underway: roll season. With the expiration of January options coming tomorrow, people who hold January options but want to keep their exposure have had to trade out of their soon-to-expire positions and into another month. Here are some highlights.

Yesterday in BJ’s Wholesale Club (BJ), a customer bought-to-close 8,600 Jan 25 puts for a nickel, and sold–to-open 8,600 Feb 25 puts for 50 cents. Open interest at the time in the Feb 25 puts was just 172 when the trade occurred in the first half hour Wednesday morning. The customer clearly still likes the prospects for BJ staying above $25, so he/she wants to continue to collect premium. Back on December 15, the initial sale of the Jan contracts was made for 25 cents. Back then the stock was trading over $34, and is down to $31 today. So despite the stock falling, the investor made 20 cents on his puts.

In a similar trade to BJ, a customer (maybe the same one) bought–to-close 8,300 of the Jan 40 puts in VF Corporation (VFC). At the same time, the customer sold-to-open 8,300 of the Feb 40 puts versus open interest of just 194. Here the customer collected 80 cents to buy the Jan and sell the Feb. As in BJ, the initial sale of the Jan 40 puts occurred on December 15. The investor collected 75 cents at the time with the stock trading at 52.50.

In another roll unrelated to BJ and VFC, in Cooper Companies, (COO) on Tuesday a customer sold to close 6,000 of the Jan 15 calls at $4.40 and bought-to-open 6,000 of the Feb 20 calls for $1.65 versus open interest of just 151. Like the previous two examples, this roll demonstrates continued bullishness, but in this case the investor is buying options instead of selling. COO does not have earnings until early March, long after Feb expires, but the stock bottomed at $10.94 on November 20 and is now up to $19.6. The investor originally bought the Jan option for around $1.70 back on November 18 with the stock around $14.30. So the investor basically pockets $2.40 in gains and still has upside exposure to the shares.

Bullish rolls like these do not mean investors should run right out and buy the shares. But it is interesting to note that every one of these three stocks is currently flat to up in a down market. People wondering why might want to at least consider that.