i recall you can right click and bring up the exercise command. buy if your calls were already in the money and have enough funds to take the position, the broker will exercise on your behalf.
Why does everyone on this site have to have an opinion? NO, if the shares are below the strike at the bell, the "official close" as defined by the OCC, it will not auto-ex. You're wrong. In this case he would have to proactively contact his broker prior to their cut which may be earlier than the OCC's (cut).
THANK YOU. Yes, It is a proactive action. I just wanted to know when the absolute deadline with IB was. Since the price rocketed at 515pm est. Even IB has give me diff answers. Sigh.
If the price rocketed at that time, then that is the time to exit if you're still in the trade. Who has time to be making phone calls about a trade?
IB's deadline is 430 pm et. Absolute OCC deadline is 530 pm et (as @poopy mentioned). Each broker will have different cutoff times to meet this 530pm OCC deadline. My broker is 515pm et with best efforts after that until 530.