Here's why Buffett never bets a stock's price will go down

Warren Buffett hasn't commented publicly on the Redditers vs Hedge Fund Short Sellers War that has captivated Wall Street, and beyond.

But he has commented in the past about short selling in general. (Short selling involves borrowing shares of stock, selling the stock, then hoping the price goes down so you can buy the shares you need to return to the lender, while pocketing the difference. If you have to pay more to buy the shares to settle your debt, you've lost money.)

He doesn't recommend it because you face potentially unlimited losses since there's no absolute upper limit to a stock's price.

And, he warns, a stock's price can remain above the company's true value longer than many short sellers can keep their nerve, or even remain solvent.

Here's what he had to say about it in the 2001 and 2006 Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders meetings.

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BERKSHIRE STOCK WATCH

BERKSHIRE'S TOP U.S. STOCK HOLDINGS - JAN 29, 2021

Berkshire's top holdings of disclosed publicly-traded U.S. stocks by market value, based on today's closing prices.

Holdings are as of September 30, 2020 as reported in Berkshire Hathaway and New England Asset Management's 13F filings on November 16, 2020.

The full list of holdings and current market values is available from CNBC.com's Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Tracker.

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-- Alex Crippen, Editor, Warren Buffett Watch