Mr. Steel, a onetime institutional salesman, retired earlier this year.

His father is a vice president and an institutional municipal-bond salesman in New York for Fleet Securities.

"There is some concern that they will miss too much of the rally if they wait until February," one institutional salesman said.

His father is an institutional salesman at Bridge Information Systems, a financial news and data company in New York.

"He took satisfaction in beating other people at a game that most others lose at," one institutional salesman recalled.

"Investors are understandably reluctant to buy when yields are at 20-year lows," said one institutional salesman.

His father, now retired, was an institutional salesman in Boston with Salomon Brothers.

Mr. Stamenson is an institutional salesman separate from Merrill's underwriting business, they said.

"You could not describe this as a buying panic," one institutional salesman said.

At noon the next day, Knight spoke to a group of 50 buy-side analysts in a conference call set up by an institutional salesman.