They may be the market's most rewarding long-term names. But let's face it -- technology stocks are also uncomfortably volatile, capable of shaking you out of trades at the worst possible time. For perspective, the S&P 500 Information Technology index now sits 27% below its late-2021 high, leading the S&P 500's bearish charge this year. That tumble follows the 140% rally from the tech index's early 2020 low, but that low was the result of a 28% rout linked to the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic. Unless you had nerves of steel it's likely you didn't get in at that bottom. It's also probable you didn't bail out at the sector's peak late last year.
And that's just the technology index's action. Some tech stocks have dished out even bigger swings, vexing investors trying to chase their upside potential while steering clear of their downside moves. If you're done doing this dance, there are lots of smart exchange-traded fund (ETF) alternatives offering plenty of upside but with far less downside. Here's a closer look at three of the top choices.
Invesco S&P 500 Low Volatility ETF
It almost feels too obvious to suggest it to investors specifically looking to avoid the volatility that tech stocks bring to the table. But there's no denying that the Invesco S&P 500 Low Volatility ETF (SPLV 0.63%) fits the bill.
Just as the name suggests, this fund is designed to move less erratically than the broad market does, and certainly less erratically than most technology stocks do. It holds 100 of the S&P 500's least volatile tickers for the past 12 months, and is rebalanced every three months. Its current top holdings include Johnson & Johnson, DTE Energy, and PepsiCo. None of these companies are particularly prone to surprises. To this end, the fund only mirrors about 70% of the S&P 500's average daily movement, whether that be up or down.
NYSEMKT: SPLV
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The trade-off is performance. With lots of utilities, healthcare, and consumer staples stocks in its portfolio, the Invesco S&P 500 Low Volatility ETF just doesn't produce the same sort of gains tech stocks -- or the overall market -- do. The fund has consistently trailed the S&P 500 over the past 10 years, averaging a gain of 11.3% per year versus the broad market's typical 13% annual advance.
The other trade-off may well be worth it, though: You get to sleep well at night.
SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust
If owning the Invesco S&P 500 Low Volatility ETF is a smart-but-obvious alternative to tech stocks, then stepping into the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY 1.61%) for the same reason is downright cliche. Nevertheless, it's a fund more investors should be holding.
It's difficult to beat the market. It's so difficult, in fact, that most professional stock pickers can't do it. S&P Global's most recent analysis of the matter found that more than half of the large-cap mutual funds offered to U.S. investors underperformed the S&P 500 index last year. For the past five years the figure is more than 84%. For the past decade, 90% of large-cap funds available to investors in the United States couldn't keep up with the S&P 500.
NYSEMKT: SPY
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Think about that for a moment. Well-qualified and well-paid fund managers with access to more tools and data than the average individual investor were still mostly unable to do what most of them get paid to do.
That's not meant to discourage you from owning individual stocks. Indeed, as a smaller investor, you have an edge. You don't have to worry about unduly moving a stock's price when you're buying and selling. Fund managers do. You also don't have a boss standing over your shoulder expecting -- maybe even demanding -- better immediate returns. That pressure can ultimately force ill-advised decisions.
Still, if your end goal is achieving good long-term returns that don't lag the market's long-term results, your best bet is committing a sizable piece of your portfolio to a market-based fund.
Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Technology ETF
With all of this being said, don't jump to the conclusion that you have to avoid tech stocks altogether. They still boast the market's best long-term gains, after all. The trick is in how you invest in the sector.
If you've been "burned" by a tech name (or more than one tech name), think back to how it all happened. Were you really an investor? Or, were you actually more of a trader, only learning after the fact that the prevailing rhetoric about a company at the time was wrong? Names like Netflix, Walt Disney, and Shopify come to mind. Just when it seemed these companies' backstories were primed to drive their stocks higher just a few months back, the proverbial rug was pulled out from underneath them. With honest retrospect though, most of the people burned by these names were thinking more about the stock's price and action at the time, and less about the company's long-term prospects. Had they done the latter, these buyers may have avoided heartache and headache.
What if, however, you were able to take the timing aspect of trading technology stocks out of the equation altogether? That's exactly what the Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Technology ETF (RYT 2.01%) does.
NYSEMKT: RYT
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Simply put, this fund mirrors the S&P 500 Equal Weight Information Technology index. The twist is, unlike most market-cap-weighted indexes that are overexposed to mega-companies like Apple and Microsoft, this fund owns evenly sized stakes in the 76 tech stocks it holds. The end result is less volatility.
The real upside for investors, however, is that owning an ETF like the Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Technology ETF sidesteps the short-term trading of technology stocks that often does more harm than good. Yet it still provides exposure to one of the market's most proven industries.
