"He loved it there," said his brother Michael, who once worked at Cantor as a bond broker.

"I am sure the bond brokers are breaking out the Champagne in anticipation of a huge deal," he said.

There was Tommy Palazzo, 31, a bond broker with a wife and three children.

(She eventually became a bond broker; they divorced after 11 years together.)

He was 38, a bond broker at Cantor Fitzgerald, the father of three girls ranging in age from 22 months to 6 years.

The price charged for a bond generally includes its face value plus the bond broker's commission.

And the company, the leading bond broker, expects to make about $100 million in the year ending on Oct. 1.

We'll have a bond broker in here and get you right out.

Mr. Burke left the firm himself in the mid-1990's after a decade there as a government bond broker.

His brother, a bond broker, left four children.