"There is not that much trading of Citi paper," one corporate trader said.

MultiCharts is a professional electronic trading platform for individual and corporate traders.

The mortgage traders deeply resented the corporate and government traders.

"Ask the guys," says Ranieri, "they'll tell you that the corporate traders got paid twice as much as them."

What was worse, in the view of the mortgage traders, Smith was a corporate trader.

"The banks, the corporate traders, the investment houses and the speculators have got their courage back and we can take on the central banks now."

"Without Treasuries there was nothing we could peg corporate bond prices off," a corporate trader said.

"We are roughly back to the levels we were at on Thursday night," a corporate trader said.

But once the bond rally stalled, European corporate traders, particularly from Germany, cashed in their dollar holdings.

"We have seen a little bit of buying among the better money center names as well as the better regional banks," one corporate trader said.