Buy Berkshire Hathaway stock or follow the Buffett Tracker? What each one actually gives you, and why the usual advice is half right

I'm Chris, one of the co-founders of Autopilot. Ask how to copy Warren Buffett's portfolio and the most common answer is "just buy Berkshire Hathaway stock." That answer is half right, and the half it misses is exactly the half our Buffett Tracker is built for. Here's what each one gives you, so you can pick the half you actually want.

One thing first, because we're an SEC-registered investment adviser and I have to say it. Autopilot is the app. The actual investment advice comes from Autopilot Advisers, LLC. If you want the full legal version of anything in here, it's on our disclaimer page.

What Berkshire stock is

Berkshire Hathaway is a company, and its shares are a claim on the whole company: the operating businesses it owns outright, its insurance operations, its cash, and, alongside all of that, the portfolio of public stocks that its 13F discloses. When you buy the stock, you get all of it, in one ticker, at whatever price the market puts on the whole, with no subscription, no filing lag, and Berkshire's own leadership deciding everything, including what to do with the cash. Greg Abel has been Berkshire's chief executive since January 2026. That's the simplest possible way to own what Buffett built, and for many people it's the right answer.

What the Buffett Tracker is

The Tracker follows only the public stock portfolio: the reportable US positions Berkshire Hathaway Inc discloses on its Form 13F within 45 days after each quarter ends. When the filing posts, the Portfolio updates, and your account holds those positions in proportion to your allocation, in the brokerage you already have. You give Autopilot Advisers limited authority to send orders to that account. When the Portfolio changes, we send them and your broker fills them. The money stays put. It's built and managed by Autopilot Advisers, LLC, not Berkshire, and its fact sheet shows the largest positions with a timestamp and the live record of follower accounts since it launched. What it leaves out is everything the 13F leaves out: the wholly owned businesses, the insurance operations, the cash, and the timing. How to follow it is in How to follow Berkshire Hathaway's holdings in your own brokerage account.

So which half do you want

If you want Buffett's company, the businesses and the cash and the judgment about when to deploy it, buy the stock. If you want the stock picks specifically, held as individual positions in your own account, with the option to blacklist one, size the allocation, or stop following, that's the Tracker. Two more honest differences. The Tracker lags the filing, which lags the trades; the stock has no lag, because you're not copying anything, you're owning it. And the Tracker is a subscription, while the stock costs whatever your brokerage charges to buy a share, which for many is nothing. I don't think either choice is wrong. I think choosing without knowing the difference is.

The fee comparison, honestly

Owning Berkshire stock carries no management fee and no subscription. Following the Tracker requires the paid Premium Tier, a flat cash subscription, and, on a small allocation, that flat fee is a meaningful share of what you've invested. Convert it to dollars a year, divide by your allocation, and decide whether the stock picks alone are worth that over the stock itself; the arithmetic is in What a flat investing fee means at your balance: the small-account math, what Premium Tier is for, and how to leave. Reading the Tracker's record before deciding is in How to read a Portfolio's track record before you follow it.

Frequently asked questions

Should I buy Berkshire Hathaway stock or follow the Buffett Tracker?

They give you different halves. Berkshire stock is a claim on the whole company, its wholly owned businesses, insurance operations, cash, and stock portfolio, with no fee, no lag, and Berkshire's leadership deciding everything. The Buffett Tracker holds only the public stock positions from Berkshire's 13F, as individual positions in your own brokerage account, for a subscription and with the filing lag. Pick by which half you want; neither is wrong.

What's the difference between owning Berkshire and copying Buffett's portfolio?

Owning Berkshire means owning the entire company in one ticker, including businesses and cash that never appear in a 13F. Following the portfolio, whether by hand from the filing or through Autopilot's Buffett Tracker, means holding only the disclosed US stock positions, in your own proportions, after each filing posts. The first has no lag and no fee; the second gives you the positions themselves, which you can size, blacklist, or stop following.

Does Berkshire Hathaway stock include Buffett's stock picks?

Yes, indirectly: the public stock portfolio is one part of Berkshire, so owning the stock gives you exposure to those positions along with everything else the company owns. What it doesn't give you is the positions as individual holdings in your own account. The Buffett Tracker does that, following the 13F, and nothing else.

Which is cheaper, Berkshire stock or the Buffett Tracker?

The stock: buying a share costs whatever your brokerage charges, often nothing, and there's no ongoing fee. The Tracker requires Autopilot's paid Premium Tier, a flat cash subscription, which is a larger share of a small allocation than a large one. Convert the subscription to dollars a year divided by your allocation and ask whether holding the picks as individual positions is worth that over owning the company.

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Since Autopilot Advisers is an SEC-registered investment adviser, we have to put disclaimers on stuff like this. They're below, and the full version is on our disclaimer page.

Disclosures

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