For all its substantial portfolio holdings, the cornerstone of Berkshire Hathaway's earnings comes from the dozens of businesses it controls, including insurance company Geico and railroad BNSF. Those companies and others helped bring Berkshire's profit last year to a record $19.48 billion.
Nor have investors punished Berkshire Hathaway's own stock for the recent market gyrations. The class A shares of the conglomerate are up 16 percent this year, and up 8.75 percent since the second quarter.
That handily beats the S&P 500's tepid 4.3 percent gain so far this year.
Last year, for the first time since Buffett took control of Berkshire in 1965, the company's five-year gain in book value per share underperformed the S&P 500's five-year rise, including dividends but before tax.
But Buffett has often said that Berkshire Hathaway will do best against the index in lackluster or even down markets. In recent years, stocks have been surging.
And Buffett's preferred holding time of forever is well known, with the so-called Oracle of Omaha an advocate of buy-and-hold strategies for everyone from himself through Mom-and-Pop retail investors.
Indeed, Buffett himself has often praised falling markets as buying opportunities.
"Tumbling markets can be helpful to the true investor if he has cash available when prices get far out of line with values," he wrote in his annual letter to shareholders this year.
"A climate of fear is your friend when investing; a euphoric world is your enemy."