Berkshire Hathaway is a hedge for a tech-heavy portfolio against a tech correction, an oil shock or an inflation spike. It offers defensive exposure to insurance, energy and rails, a cash pile of over $350 billion that makes it an optionality machine, and a culture of discipline and compounding that should outlast Buffett. Possible bad surprises from the Iran conflict make that protection worth having during inevitable rotations. x.com 

Berkshire Hathaway's capital allocation has changed for the worse under new leadership, as its $8.5B all-cash Taylor Morrison acquisition buys a homebuilder just as home prices reverse, new homes lose their premium and goods and commodity inflation takes off. Its large Alphabet stake looks similarly unwise. x.com 

Occidental Petroleum is mispriced at about 8.4x trailing earnings and an 8.7% free cash flow yield during an oil shock. Eight times earnings in an oil shock is not a valuation but a clerical error with a ticker symbol. Iran cannot beat the US Navy, so it is waiting out America's vote in 49 days, since Iran does not vote until 2028; owning Occidental beats hiding in Treasuries. x.com 

The energy stock bull market is getting long in the tooth. A late signal is that S&P has only now revised Occidental Petroleum's outlook to positive, an upgrade back toward investment grade it should have made four years ago. x.com 

Berkshire Hathaway is built for long-term survival rather than maximum returns, earning a Risk Shield rating of 95/100 that puts it in the top 5% of stocks globally. Growth is average and quality only slightly above average, but the balance sheet holds a record $397 billion of cash, 31% of total assets, with negative net debt, low beta and low volatility. x.com 

Occidental Petroleum looks cheap against its sales, trading 32% below the low end of a $88.24-$112.30 fair-value range set at about 5 times mid-cycle sales. It carries a PEG of 0.87 and a forward P/E of 15.7x, and would only look expensive above $105.52. These are valuation levels from reported earnings and revenue estimates, not fundamental work. x.com 

Berkshire Hathaway's $4.5 billion buyback is a valuation signal that its shares trade below intrinsic value. Berkshire repurchases only when management believes that, and it had bought none for six quarters; insiders who wrote the intrinsic-value rulebook buying again says more than any multiple. @VistaSharesX adds that Q2 also saw the cash pile fall and Berkshire turn net buyer of stocks, the first quarter that looks like Greg Abel's. x.com 

Berkshire Hathaway is hard to call expensive: about $400B of cash and $300B of stocks mean a roughly $1T valuation pays only about $300B for the railroad, energy, insurance and operating businesses. Its insurance float is a massively underestimated source of cheap capital, and the cash is a call option on future chaos, letting it write huge checks when markets panic. Greg Abel understands its culture. Whitney Tilson, quoted via @kejca, expects it to beat the S&P 500 over five years. x.com  x.com  … Show more

Chevron's management is not what it seemed, as the stock has underperformed other large oil companies despite record fuel costs and Venezuelan tailwinds. That undercuts the earlier view that upside oil risk would carry the shares, so cash is better for now. x.com 

Oil majors such as Shell, BP, ExxonMobil and Chevron deserve their multiples because they have consistently generated 10%+ returns across complete energy cycles. They are integrated, now diversified, and control a key commodity for decades ahead. Investors will do fine if they hold for the long term. x.com