The Best Tech ETF to Invest $2,000 in Right Now

Are you a firm believer in the technology sector's long-term potential, but also fear that most technology funds are just too dangerously top-heavy right now to buy any of them? If that sounds like you, you're not crazy; most tech ETFs are wildly unbalanced at this time. Fortunately, there's an easy solution that could prove to be a strategically brilliant addition to your portfolio right now.

But first things first.

ETFs suffer from a common problem

You almost certainly understand the underlying reason for most technology exchange-traded funds' biggest problem right now. That's the advent of artificial intelligence (AI). It has disproportionately benefited the stocks of a relatively small number of companies deep into the AI business. For perspective, Nvidia, Apple, and Microsoft collectively make up 43% of the cap-weighted Vanguard Information Technology ETF's (NYSEMKT: VGT) current value. If the AI bubble pops, this fund could suffer a setback far bigger than most investors might think is possible for any ETF consisting of 320 different tickers.

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It's not just VGT, though. Nearly 40% of the State Street Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF's (NYSEMKT: XLK) value consists of the exact same three stocks. Adding Broadcom and Micron Technology to the mix pushes this figure up to almost 50% of the fund's total value. Even the Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ: QQQ), meant to mirror the performance of the Nasdaq-100 index -- which has guardrails in place specifically meant to prevent such an imbalance -- has become uncomfortably unbalanced. Its 10 biggest holdings account for a little more than 47% of the ETF's total value. This is the sort of concentration most fans of exchange-traded funds are hoping to avoid.

Yet, tech stocks still remain the market's most promising prospects for long-term growth.

Better balanced by design

So what's the solution (now, as well as in the long run)?

It's not an especially popular ETF compared to choices like the aforementioned QQQ, VGT, or XLK. But the Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Technology ETF (NYSEMKT: RSPT) is built from the ground up to sidestep this very problem.

Just as the name suggests, while it holds the same basic 72 S&P 500 tech stocks that most conventional cap-weighted technology ETFs do, it holds them all in equal-sized proportions. It rebalances these positions every quarter just to make sure this remains the case, selling or buying these tickers as needed.

It seems like a brilliant solution to a nagging problem. And it is. It's not as if there's no trade-off, though. That trade-off is, in periods like the past three years, where a small number of technology stocks have dished out amazing -- and amazingly sustained -- gains, this ETF was constantly scaling back the size of its positions in these hot stocks. That's the chief reason this fund has underperformed its peers during this stretch.

In less-explosive and more evenly balanced market environments, though (like the one we're likely entering), this technology ETF not only keeps pace with its peers, but can lead them by owning relatively bigger pieces of relatively smaller companies with stocks that haven't yet soared, but are due to lead. By this same token, the Invesco equal-weight fund can even be pre-emptively defensive by locking in gains on the market's hotter technology stocks while they're leading the charge higher.

Just some food for thought.

James Brumley has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Apple, Micron Technology, Microsoft, and Nvidia and is short shares of Apple. The Motley Fool recommends Broadcom. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.