he only holds preferred shares...no common stock....plus he hedges with puts, and probably finances this with selling calls vs his stock.
I also wonder why and for how long he was 100% bonds. I seem to be the only one interested in this. If he went into bonds when the dow was 14K, where was his "Sell American, I Am" column? Without a sell signal, his buy n' hold disciples will still be holding on and won't have any cash to buy, now.
He made money in sideways markets before *Dow Jones Industrial Average Dec. 31, 1964: 874.12 Dec. 31, 1981: 875.00 *Berkshire Hathaways Book Value Returns 1965 23.8 1966 20.3 1967 11.0 1968 19.0 1969 16.2 1970 12.0 1971 16.4 1972 21.7 1973 4.7 1974 5.5 1975 21.9 1976 59.3 1977 31.9 1978 24.0 1979 35.7 1980 19.3 1981 31.4 Total more than 2000%
He said in the article he is not picking a bottom and there is a good chance stocks will drift lower over the intermediate term. It's not like he was trying to nail the bottom tick.