There are two ways to buy Berkshire Hathaway stock. You can own the shares through a share-dealing account and hold them, or you can trade the Berkshire Hathaway share price with a contract for difference (CFD) to go long or short with leverage. On Volity you take the second route: you trade Berkshire as a CFD on the Volity MT platform, in the same account as forex, crypto and indices.
CFDs are leveraged, so they can magnify a loss as fast as a gain, and you can lose more than you deposit. This guide walks through both routes, the difference between the Class A and Class B shares, the steps to place a trade, what buyers in the UK need to know, and how to weigh whether Berkshire fits your plan.
What are you buying when you buy Berkshire Hathaway stock?
Berkshire Hathaway is a holding company built over decades by Warren Buffett, who moved to the chairman’s seat at the start of 2026 when Greg Abel took over as chief executive. It owns businesses outright, from insurance and the BNSF railway to energy and consumer brands, and holds large stakes in listed companies. The stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange in two share classes: Class A under the ticker BRK.A and Class B under BRK.B.
Owning the share gives you a stake in that collection of businesses for as long as you hold it. Berkshire does not pay a dividend; it reinvests its earnings instead, so the return comes from the share price rather than income. That is the buy-and-hold route, and it usually runs through a share-dealing account. A CFD works differently. It tracks the Berkshire share price, so your profit or loss is the difference between your entry and your exit, you never own the share, and you can go long or short using margin. That is the route Volity offers. If equities are new to you, our stocks trading guide covers the basics first.
Berkshire Hathaway Class A vs Class B: what is the difference?
Most people asking how to buy Berkshire Hathaway shares end up buying the Class B share, and it helps to know why the two classes exist. The Class A share (BRK.A) is the original. It has never been split, so a single Class A share can cost several hundred thousand US dollars, which puts it out of reach for most private buyers.
Buffett created the Class B share in May 1996 to give smaller investors a lower-priced, direct way in, and to head off promoters who were packaging Berkshire exposure into high-fee lookalike unit trusts. In January 2010 the Class B share was split 50-for-1 to help fund the acquisition of the BNSF railway, which improved liquidity and led to Berkshire joining the S&P 500. Since that split, each Class B share carries 1/1,500 of the economic value of a Class A share and 1/10,000 of its voting rights, according to Berkshire’s own comparison of the two classes. A Class A share can be converted into 1,500 Class B shares at any time, but the conversion does not work in reverse.
| Feature | Class A (BRK.A) | Class B (BRK.B) |
| Typical price | Several hundred thousand USD | A small fraction of Class A |
| Economic value | One full share | 1/1,500 of a Class A |
| Voting rights | Full | 1/10,000 of a Class A |
| Convertible | Into 1,500 Class B shares | Not into Class A |
| Best suited to | Institutions and long-term holders | Private buyers and traders |
The mechanics are much the same whether you plan to hold the Class B share or trade the price. On a CFD account such as Volity, the flow looks like this.
- Open and verify an account, and start on a free demo if the market is new to you.
- Fund it by card, bank transfer or crypto in the currency you want. Opening an account is free, you can start investing from $1, and you can place your first trade from $1.
- Search BRK.B to open the Berkshire Hathaway chart.
- Choose an order type: a market order to fill now, or a limit order to fill at a price you set.
- Set your size and stop from a fixed risk percentage rather than from a hunch.
- Place the order, manage the position, then log the trade and review it later.
To own the shares outright instead, the same first steps apply at a share-dealing broker. Only your time horizon and your use of leverage change.
The right route depends on whether you want ownership or flexibility. The table below sets the two side by side.
| Feature | Owning BRK.B shares | Trading a Berkshire CFD (Volity) |
| Ownership and voting | Yes | No |
| Go short | Hard for retail | One click |
| Leverage | Usually none | Available, per-instrument margin |
| Capital needed | Share price, or a fraction of it | Margin only |
| Best for | Long-term investors | Active traders and hedgers |
Berkshire is US-listed, so buyers in the UK reach it through one of two routes. For ownership, a UK share-dealing account with access to US markets lets you hold BRK.B, and you may be able to hold it inside a Stocks and Shares ISA. UK brokers and the London Stock Exchange both offer ways into international shares. For trading, a CFD account lets you take a long or short position on the Berkshire share price. Because the shares are priced in US dollars, anyone buying Berkshire Hathaway shares in the UK should also watch the GBP/USD exchange rate, which changes the return once it is converted back into pounds. For active trading, the CFD route on Volity keeps Berkshire in the same account as your other markets.
How to invest in Berkshire Hathaway: what to weigh
Whether and how to invest in Berkshire Hathaway comes down to your goals, your time horizon and your risk tolerance, and this is general information for your own research rather than personal advice. Berkshire is a large, diversified blue-chip holding company, so it tends to move less violently than a single-product growth stock, though no share is immune to a downturn. Decide how much of your portfolio one name should occupy, keep it diversified, and commit only money you can afford to lose. If a full Class B share is more than you want to allocate at once, some share-dealing accounts offer fractional shares. Practise on a demo, risk a small fixed percentage on each trade, and use a stop-loss on every position.
Leverage is also why regulators watch the CFD market closely. Bodies such as ESMA and the FCA cap the leverage retail clients can use on CFDs and require clear risk warnings, because a leveraged position can lose money as fast as it can make it.
Why trade Berkshire Hathaway on Volity?
Volity lets you trade Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) as a CFD, long or short, on the Volity MT platform with built-in TradingView charts. Orders fill fast, with 99.6% executed in under a second and no re-quotes, and Berkshire sits among 10,000+ instruments across stocks, forex, crypto and indices in one account. Leverage runs up to 1:500 depending on the instrument, and single shares such as Berkshire carry lower leverage than that headline figure. Volity operates under CySEC licence 186/12 through UBK Markets. Check spreads and overnight costs on the charges and fees page, then open a free demo to place your first Berkshire trade before you commit real money.
Frequently asked questions
Use a UK share-dealing account with access to US markets to own BRK.B, or a CFD account to trade the price. Berkshire shares are priced in US dollars, so the GBP/USD rate affects your return in pounds alongside the share price itself.
The Class A share (BRK.A) is the original and has never been split, so it trades at a very high price and carries full voting rights. The Class B share (BRK.B) is worth 1/1,500 of a Class A in economic terms and 1/10,000 in voting rights, and it exists to give smaller investors an affordable, direct way in. Most private buyers use the Class B share.
Berkshire has never split the Class A share and does not pay a dividend, so decades of reinvested earnings sit behind a single, very high share price. Buffett kept it that way on purpose to attract long-term holders. The Class B share exists precisely so smaller investors do not have to buy a Class A.
No. A CFD tracks the Berkshire share price without giving you ownership or voting rights. If ownership matters to you, use a share-dealing account to hold the Class B share instead.
