So Warren Buffett officially stepped back from running Berkshire Hathaway at the end of 2025, but honestly, the guy's still very much relevant when it comes to understanding what actually works in investing. Spent six decades steering that ship and managed to deliver something like 19% annual returns - that's crushing the S&P 500's 10% by a pretty wide margin. Pretty good track record to learn from, right?

The thing about Buffett's approach that actually stands out is how simple it is. He looks for genuinely good businesses, buys them at fair prices, and then just... holds them. Doesn't overthink it. He's obsessed with companies that have real competitive advantages - what people call a moat - that keep competitors at bay. That's the framework that's worked for decades, and it still applies today.

Let me walk through three stocks that really embody what Warren Buffett is all about, and they're all still major positions in Berkshire's portfolio.

Apple is a perfect example. He started buying it back in 2016, and it's up something like 800% since then. Sure, he's trimmed some positions over the past year to lock in gains, but it remains Berkshire's single biggest holding. And he literally praised Tim Cook at last year's shareholder meeting, so it's clear he still has conviction here. What's the appeal? Apple built an absolute stranglehold on the smartphone market. People are loyal to the iPhone, they upgrade consistently, and then there's the whole services ecosystem - storage, entertainment, all that stuff - which adds another revenue stream on top of hardware sales. That's a moat in action.

Then there's Coca-Cola. Buffett bought this in the late 1980s and never sold. It's the fourth largest holding in the portfolio now. This is textbook Buffett - find something great, buy it, and hold it for decades. Coca-Cola's moat is its brand and distribution network that literally spans the globe. It might not deliver explosive overnight gains, but it consistently compounds wealth over time. Oh, and it's a Dividend King - raised its dividend for over 50 consecutive years. That tells you the company actually cares about returning money to shareholders and plans to keep doing it.

American Express rounds out the trio. Buffett's been involved with this company since the 1960s and made it a major holding in the mid-1990s. Now it's the second biggest position in Berkshire's portfolio. He actually wrote in his 2023 shareholder letter about both Coca-Cola and American Express: "When you find a truly wonderful business, stick with it." That's the whole philosophy right there. American Express works because it's a premium payment card with wealthy customers who don't panic during recessions. The business just keeps growing - they hit over $72 billion in revenue recently.

The pattern here is obvious: find quality, buy reasonably, hold long-term. These three stocks show exactly how that plays out in practice. If you're looking to build a portfolio with some of that Buffett DNA, these are solid places to start.