As chaos gripped a key funding market for Wall Street this week, a number of investors seized the moment and took advantage of the surge in short-term borrowing costs to lend a hand to bond dealers, banks and hedge funds feeling the pinch.

Investors wielding spare cash said this week’s troubles in the overnight repo market presented one of those rare opportunities to make hay by lending out as much funds as they could to liquidity-starved traders left scrambling before the Federal Reserve’s pair of liquidity injections.