The markets have started the year in a significant nosedive. In fact, we’ve basically replicated the volatility we saw back in August and September of last year.

Any day that we get a bounce, even a slight one, the pundits start asking if this is the bottom. And you start wondering where you should put your money.Fortunately, you don’t have to worry about finding the perfect stock. There’s a much better way to survive these markets: exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

ETFs Can Remove the Stress from Stock Picking

People get fixated on finding THE best stock in which to invest.

At one time, high flyers like Priceline Group Inc. (Nasdaq: PCLN), Alphabet Inc. (formerly known as Google Inc.) (Nasdaq: GOOGL), Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL), and Netflix Inc. (Nasdaq: NFLX) got all the press. This helped financial news networks gain viewership – so long as they could keep those stocks on their screens.

But there are thousands of optionable securities to choose from in all types of sectors and industries.

And trying to find the right one, or the one that will perform the best, is like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

Furthermore, the “right one” is a relative term. What may be right for one investor may not be right for the other.

So instead of going through the daunting task of finding the needle in that haystack, let’s focus on the haystack itself: the ETF.

An ETF is a security that tracks an index, commodity, bonds, or a basket of assets in a certain industry or sector, like an index fund.

ETFs trade just like a common stock on an exchange and experience many price changes throughout the day. Personally, I like them for the diversity they allow.

Here’s an example…

Let’s say you believe in a specific industry like technology. Instead of trying to pick out the best tech stock, you can simply buy the Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSE Arca: XLK).