A miraculous day for A-shares! Trading volume returned to 2 trillion yuan. The Science and Technology Innovation Semiconductor ETF hit the 20CM daily limit, while the Science and Technology Innovation Chip ETF, Science and Technology Innovation 100 ETF, and Science and Technology Innovation 50 ETF all rose more than 12%. Yesterday, broad-based ETFs saw inflows of 85.9 billion yuan, the highest single-day figure of this round and second only to the 103.1 billion yuan recorded on April 8, 2025.
Amid this wave of global tech stock pullbacks, so-called "old-school" stocks have bucked the trend and strengthened. Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) shares once again hit a record high. On the other side, US AI trades encountered headwinds. The Nasdaq Index has fallen 7.66% since October 6, with market concerns persistently mounting over whether tech giants' massive AI investments can deliver returns.
While the formerly hottest AI sector faces pressure, old-school stocks represented by Berkshire Hathaway are climbing against the tide. This market divergence has reignited discussion around a previous joke made by Duan Yongping. The well-known investor revealed that he bought Berkshire Hathaway to "hide from the bull market." In his latest post, he said: "Berkshire Hathaway B Has this been a successful retreat from the bull market?"
On October 27 this year, Duan Yongping stated: "BRK (Berkshire Hathaway) is very likely to perform just a little better than the S&P 500, so I bought some as well. I've said before that I wanted to hide from the bull market in BRK." (All content in this article is a listing of objective data and information and does not constitute any investment advice.)
What Duan Yongping means by "hiding from the bull market" is that as popular trades become increasingly crowded, he places a portion of his capital into Berkshire Hathaway, a company with mature businesses and diversified cash flow sources, to stay in the market in another way. Berkshire Hathaway's long-accumulated historical performance also makes the phrase "hiding from the bull market" all the more striking.
Looking at Berkshire Hathaway's historical performance, from 1965 to 2025 — a span of 61 years — the company recorded a decline in only 11 years, with cumulative returns of approximately 6,099,294% and an annualized return of 19.7%. Over the same period, the S&P 500 Index delivered cumulative returns of approximately 46,061% with an annualized return of 10.5%.
On October 22, a netizen posted: "Berkshire Hathaway A has recently hit a record high, indicating that investors no longer trust their own abilities and are willing to hand their money to Buffett to manage. Truly navigating through cycles is very difficult. Most investors are reacting late, relying on luck, or simply lacking the capability, because to fully understand a company or a market requires not just knowledge of a few industries, but comprehensive knowledge across multiple fields, plus judgment. We are always like blind men touching an elephant — the information we can access is always limited. Making judgments under such circumstances with a high win rate is unimaginably difficult."
Duan Yongping replied on October 23: "I also put some money here to hide from the bull market a while ago." He also posted a screenshot. Regarding hiding from the bull market, Duan Yongping had mentioned it back in 2025. On November 1, 2025, he said: "At this point, I will most likely buy BRK/B — that's a great place to hide from the bull market." On November 22, Duan Yongping posted: "I did say I wanted to hide in BRK for a while during the bull market. Now it seems I can come out." On March 6 this year, Duan Yongping posted: "Looks like hiding from the bull market here worked out again."
From his past remarks, "hiding from the bull market" seems more like a form of "hedging" in Duan Yongping's position choices: he hasn't left the market, nor has he bet all his capital on the hottest direction. Holdings of Duan Yongping's fund show that Berkshire Hathaway B is its second-largest holding, with 81,900 shares added in the second quarter. As of the end of the second quarter, the H&H International Investment fund managed by Duan Yongping had a total position value of approximately $19.1 billion, holding 18 stocks: Apple, Berkshire Hathaway B, Pinduoduo, Tesla, Nvidia, Google C, Occidental Petroleum, Microsoft, Credo Technology, UnitedHealth, Disney, Alibaba, Circle, PLTR, Synopsys, Snowflake, Tempus AI, and Innodata.
This portfolio includes not only traditional companies but also multiple tech stocks. Duan Yongping did not choose between technology and "old-school stocks" — Berkshire Hathaway is just one part of the portfolio. A similar scene has also appeared in A-shares. The A-share "old-school stock" Kweichow Moutai Co.,Ltd. (600519) recently staged a rally, gaining 19.78% over the 20 trading days from September 30 to November 3 this year. Coincidentally, Kweichow Moutai Co.,Ltd. has always been a holding of Duan Yongping, who has publicly said that in A-shares he only holds Moutai.
Moutai and Berkshire Hathaway have completely different businesses, but both possess business models that the market has observed for years. They may not always rise the fastest, but they often regain attention when uncertainty rises. On November 1, a netizen asked: "At this price, which do you find more attractive — Tencent or Moutai?" Duan Yongping replied: "Both are attractive. Moutai's business is more stable, while Tencent's business has greater growth potential but also faces greater uncertainty."
Regarding Moutai, Duan Yongping also revealed that he had once almost recommended the company to Buffett. On October 26, Duan Yongping said: "I was actually thinking a few days ago about telling old Buffett about Moutai, but on second thought I decided against it. There are plenty of opportunities now, and he doesn't need that one target. He did previously consider buying Moutai, but it was a bit troublesome to execute."
From Berkshire Hathaway and Kweichow Moutai Co.,Ltd. to Duan Yongping's recent remarks, these all correspond to changes happening in the market: the AI industry trend is still continuing, but capital is no longer only looking at the space for imagination — it is also starting to ask when investment will turn into profit and whether that profit can be sustained.
In the same market cycle, some are willing to pay a premium for a more distant future, while others place more value on businesses and cash flows that are visible right now. Both choices can appear in the same investment portfolio. What truly deserves continued observation is not which type of asset will always win, but how capital will re-evaluate the price of growth versus certainty when the hottest stories begin to face return verification. Regarding the future and the present, this game of repricing is still ongoing…
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