"Stock God" Warren Buffett has once again reduced his stake in Bank of America this week!

However, the billionaire has now fully recouped his investment costs, and the remaining shares worth over $34 billion are pure profit.

Regulatory filings submitted on Thursday show that Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway sold an additional $896 million worth of Bank of America shares this week.

This means that since mid-July, the proceeds from Berkshire's stock sales plus dividends since 2011 (excluding tax effects) have exceeded the $14.6 billion the company invested to purchase Bank of America shares.

Berkshire began to frequently reduce its holdings in Bank of America in July of this year, when the bank was its second-largest stock position.

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During this period, due to the sharp drop in the US stock market in August, the selling activities were once suspended, and then resumed with the recovery of the US stock market.

Buffett acquired preferred shares and warrants of Bank of America through a $5 billion deal in 2011, officially starting this investment.

Six years later, due to the bank's increased dividend, he converted these preferred shares into common shares.

The bank's stock price has risen significantly during this period, and the bank's increase this year has also reached about 21%.

After the latest reduction, Berkshire's stake in Bank of America may soon fall below 10%, a regulatory threshold that requires Berkshire to disclose transaction information within a few days.

At the Barclays Global Financial Services Conference on September 10, Brian Moynihan, CEO of Bank of America, said that he could not actively contact Buffett to ask for the reasons for the reduction, because "we can't ask, and we won't ask."

However, he added: "The market is absorbing these stocks, it only accounts for a small part of the trading volume every day - life will continue."

Buffett has remained silent on the reduction of core positions such as Bank of America and Apple.

The market generally believes that he is preparing in advance for possible future turbulence, accumulating cash to deal with potential "hard times."

Some industry insiders have also mentioned the headwinds facing Berkshire in the future, including the basic outlook of its core business may not be brighter; and Berkshire has significantly reduced its holdings in Apple, Bank of America, and others and accumulated a large amount of cash, but as the Federal Reserve lowers interest rates, the lower interest rates may affect the return on its accumulated record cash reserves.

Overall, Berkshire's recent operations have a distinct defensive nature, and the market speculates that it is preparing in advance for a possible sharp pullback in the US stock market.

Historical data show that the S&P 500 index will experience a pullback of more than 20% every 18 months.