A “buying stampede” occurs when many buyers (such as stock market “bulls”) all charge to buy something. The term “buying stampede” has been cited in print since at least 1891 and many citations for the next fifty years involved buying stampedes of wheat at the Chicago Board of Trade. Advertisements in American newspapers in 1904 and 1909 referred to “buying stampedes” in department stores.
 
On May 28, 2013, Jeffrey Saut, Chief Investment Strategist at Raymond James & Associates, wrote on the Raymond James website:
 
“The term ‘buying stampede’ was first coined by me back in the 1970s when I observed that runaway rallies tended to have a rhythm to them.”
 
There is no evidence that Saut either coined or popularized the term “buying stampede.”
 
 
Chronicling America
4 March 1891, St. Paul (MN) Daily Globe, “The Scalping Fraternity Sell Wheat Freely Around,” pg. 6, col. 3:
This buying ultimately bailed out the smaller sellers and caused a buying stampede among them.
 
14 May 1904, Baltimore (MD) American, pg. 4 ad:
These Will Cause a Buying Stampede Today
(Brager’s—ed.)
 
14 July 1909, Lawrence (KS) Daily World, pg. 1, col. 1 ad:
A Buying Stampede in the Boys Department!
     
Google Books
29 May 1915, The Saturday Evening Post, pg. 55, col. 3 ad:
Three distinctive models; three amazing grades of qualify at three remarkably low prices—no wonder they have started a nationwide buying stampede.
(Three Star Bicycle Tires—ed.)
 
Google News Archive
15 August 1915, Lewiston (ID) Morning Tribune, pg. 10, col. 4:
WHEAT PIT WILD
Depleted Stocks Start Buying Stampede
 
Google News Archive
18 December 1916, Toronto (Ontario) World, “Wheat Prices Reach Sharply Upward,” pg. 12, col. 7:
Like a flash, all offerings to sell were grabbed at by hundreds of nearly frantic brokers, and tho buying stampede continued until the volume of transactions had reached a huge aggregate.
 
24 March 1933, Tampa (FL) Morning Tribune, pg. 13, col. 4:
BUYING STAMPEDE
HOISTS WHEAT UP
2 1-4 CENTS BUSHEL
 
7 April 1968, New York (NY) Times, “Week in Finance: A Shock Treatment Succeeds” by Thomas E. Mullaney, ‎pg. F1:
Sidney B. Lurie, of Josephthal Co., remarked: “At the last Monday there was a general buying stampede.”
 
8 October 1973, New York (NY) Times, “New Groups Pace Revived Market” by Vartanig G. Vartan, pg. 53:
“We’ve had a buying stampede in the last three weeks,” says Robert J. Farrell, vice president of market analysis for Merrill Lynch.
 
Google News Archive
26 April 1978, Bangor (ME) Daily News, pg. 26, col. 8:
Stock prices climb
in buying stampede
   
Bloomberg.com
Worldwide QE Fueling ‘Buying Stampede’: Saut
May 9 (Bloomberg)—Jeffrey Saut, Chief Investment Strategist at Raymond James & Associates, discusses day 90 of a buying stampede on Wall Street and the sea of liquidity fueling the market. He speaks on Bloomberg Television’s “Lunch Money.” (Source: Bloomberg)
   
Raymond James
Investment Strategy by Jeffrey Saut
“Buying Stampede”
May 28, 2013
Over the long weekend I decided to type the words “buying stampede” into Google to see what popped up. To my surprise there were more than 2,000,000 “hits” on the phrase “buying stampede” and many of them were attributed to me. While that was a pretty humbling experience, it also was surprising because I would have thought more investors would have used that phrase in connection with the many upside rally skeins that have occurred over the past dozen years.
 
The term “buying stampede” was first coined by me back in the 1970s when I observed that runaway rallies tended to have a rhythm to them. Indeed, a typical buying stampede lasts for 17 – 25 sessions with only one- to three-session pauses, or pullbacks, before continuing to trade higher. It just seems to be the rhythm of the “thing” in that it tends to take that long to get everyone bullish enough to throw in their “bear towels” and buy stocks just in time to make a trading top. While it’s true some stampedes have lasted for 25 – 30 sessions, it is rare to see one extend for more than 30 sessions.