The 3 Best ETFs to Buy and Hold Through Any Market in 2026

By David Beren Published Apr 15, 9:35AM EDT

Quick Read

Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO), Pacer US Cash Cows 100 ETF (COWZ), and VanEck Morningstar Wide Moat ETF (MOAT) form a diversified core portfolio that has weathered major market events over the past decade, with VOO providing full market exposure at 0.03% expense ratio, COWZ screening for highest free cash flow yield companies, and MOAT targeting businesses with durable competitive advantages.
An equal-weight blend of the three ETFs delivered 56% returns over five years and lost only 10% in 2022 versus the S&P 500’s 18% decline, demonstrating how holding diverse philosophies together reduces volatility and improves investor behavior during drawdowns.
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The 3 Best ETFs to Buy and Hold Through Any Market in 2026 — © izzuanroslan / Shutterstock.com

A “sleep at night” portfolio does not need to be complicated, in fact, the three ETFs covered here represent three distinct philosophies for owning US equities, and together they create a diversified core that has held up through every major market event of the past decade. None of them will win every year, but that is kind of the point.

What makes this combination work is that each fund earns its place differently. The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSE:VOO) gives you the full market at nearly zero cost, while the Pacer US Cash Cows 100 ETF (BATS:COWZ) tilts toward companies generating real cash, and not market buzz.

The VanEck Morningstar Wide Moat ETF (BATS:MOAT) targets businesses with durable competitive advantages that Morningstar believes are trading below fair value. Held together, they smooth out what holding any one of them alone cannot.

Vanguard S&P 500 ETF

This fund is pure market beta at the lowest possible cost, with an expense ratio of 0.03% and a market-cap-weighted portfolio of 518 companies. The top holdings include NVIDIA at 7%, Apple at 6%, Microsoft at 4%, Amazon at 3%, and Alphabeta at 3%, which together represent over 36% of the fund.

It has returned more than 30% over the past year, 20% over the last three years, 66% over five years, and a whopping 295% over the last decade. In 2022, it fell 18.2% as rate hikes crushed growth valuations, but the lesson is not to avoid funds like this one, just not to hold it alone.

Pacer US Cash Cows 100 ETF

The Pacer fund screens the Russell 1000 for the 100 companies with the highest free cash flow yield, rebalancing quarterly. The top holdings include ConocoPhillips at 2%, Newmont at 2%, Altria at 2.09%, CVS Health at 2%, and Ford at 2%. The bottom line is there is no mega-cap tech, but the top 10 stocks still make up over 20% of the fund, so that’s worth noting.

The fund has returned over 27% over the past year, 11% over the past 36 months, and 64% over the last five years, with a total return of 147% since its December 2016 inception. The current expense ratio is 0.49%, and, like Vanguard, the fund fell 18% in 2022 but ended the year flat. This single data point is why it belongs in the portfolio.

VanEck Morningstar Wide Moat ETF

The fund targets companies Morningstar identifies as having durable competitive advantages at attractive valuations. Its 58-stock portfolio skews quality over momentum, with no mega-cap tech concentration.

Top holdings include Brown-Format and Constellation Brands at just under 3%, Bristol-Myers Squibb at 2%, Mondelez at 2%, and Clorox also at 2%, allowing the top 10 funds to make up approximately 27% of the fund in total.

Overall, the fund has returned roughly 23% over the past year, just under 12% in the last three years, 40% in the last five years, and in the last 10 years, a massive 267% return for investors. Looking back at 2022, the fund did lose roughly 13%, which was meaningfully less than the S&P 500 ETF. Its annual distribution, 0.49% expense ratio, and reconstitution create more taxable events, making it best suited for tax-advantaged accounts.

Equal-Weight Blend vs. the S&P 500

An equal-weight allocation across all three funds over the past five years would have returned approximately 56%, trailing the S&P 500 ETF’s 66%, but in 2022, the same blend lost roughly 10% versus the market’s 18% decline. The smoother ride changes the behavioral math: investors who do not panic in drawdowns capture the recovery.

Correlation Matrix

	VOO	COWZ	MOAT
VOO	1.00	0.77	0.88
COWZ	0.77	1.00	0.74
MOAT	0.88	0.74	1.00

The Cash Cows fund’s 0.77 correlation with the S&P 500 ETF is the lowest of the three pairs, making it the most meaningful diversifier.

Rebalancing and Tax Efficiency

The goal is to be balanced annually or when any fund deviates by more than 5 percentage points from target. The S&P 500 ETF is highly tax-efficient, while the Cash Cows fund’s annual full turnover and the Wide Moat ETF’s quarterly reconstitution both generate taxable events. Hold those two in a tax-advantaged account whenever possible.

Sample Allocations

Conservative: VOO 50%, COWZ 30%, MOAT 20%
Moderate: VOO 40%, COWZ 30%, MOAT 30%
Aggressive: VOO 34%, COWZ 33%, MOAT 33%

All three are liquid, low-cost, and index-based, and together they give investors a proven core built to withstand whatever the market throws at it.

About the Author David Beren →

David Beren has been a Flywheel Publishing contributor since 2022. Writing for 24/7 Wall St. since 2023, David loves to write about topics of all shapes and sizes. As a technology expert, David focuses heavily on consumer electronics brands, automobiles, and general technology. He has previously written for LifeWire, formerly About.com. As a part-time freelance writer, David’s “day job” has been working on and leading social media for multiple Fortune 100 brands. David loves the flexibility of this field and its ability to reach customers exactly where they like to spend their time. Additionally, David previously published his own blog, TmoNews.com, which reached 3 million readers in its first year. In addition to freelance and social media work, David loves to spend time with his family and children and relive the glory days of video game consoles by playing any retro game console he can get his hands on.