Pattern file
Warren Buffett
Chairman Emeritus and director, Berkshire Hathaway
13F (quarterly holdings), Form 4, annual letter, 10-Q/10-K
Lifetime record
No receipts yet. The record opens the day their words and a document first meet.
No receipts on Warren Buffett yet. The file opens the day their words and filings first meet. Their disclosures are on the desk.
The playbook
He handed the chief executive job to Greg Abel on the first day of 2026 and stayed chairman, so the paperwork continues: Berkshire''s quarterly 13F lists every US-listed holding, and his own Form 4s record what he gives away. Sixty years of letters and annual meetings are the said column, and they are unusually specific about what he would and would not do.
That specificity is the point. He has said in writing what kinds of companies he buys, what he thinks of buybacks, gold, bitcoin, airlines and forecasting, and the 13Fs then show what Berkshire actually bought and sold. Where they diverge, he has usually said so himself at the next meeting, which is its own kind of receipt.
The caveat is authorship. From 2026 the buying and selling is Abel''s to direct, so a new 13F entry is not automatically his. Receipts on him from here are about his stated rules and whether the firm he built still follows them; receipts on the trades themselves may belong to Abel.
What we're watching
- Nov 16, 2026 Each 13F against the rules he set out in the letters. The Q3 filing is due in November.
- Ongoing His own Form 4s, which record gifts of stock, against what he has said about giving it away.
- Open Archive: long-dated statements about airlines, gold, bitcoin and Apple, set against the 13Fs that followed.
- Recorded Sep 23, 2026 He gave up the chairmanship on Sep 18, 2026 and became Chairman Emeritus, with Howard G. Buffett taking the chair. He stays on the board, so he still files Form 4s on his own holding and still belongs here, but from now on nothing Berkshire buys or sells is his decision to answer for.
