Wall Street pros, the analyst community and individual investors alike were thrown for a loop in 2018. American tariff disputes with the rest of the world, wild energy-price swings and global growth concerns not only ravaged the market at various points, but also has the experts preaching caution as we enter the new year. The best ETFs for 2019, then, are going to need to accomplish a couple specific goals.

For one, you'll want some ETFs that position you defensively while still allowing you to enjoy at least some upside should the market head higher despite all the headwinds it faces. Numerous expert market outlooks have the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index climbing in 2019, but none of them are exuberant and all of them warn of numerous potential pitfalls. Anchoring your portfolio with funds that emphasize, say, low volatility or income can put you in a strong position no matter what the market brings.

You also need to take your shots - stocks may end up being sluggish as a whole, but that doesn't mean certain areas of the market can't explode all the same. So some of the top ETFs for the year ahead will focus on specific sectors, industries and even other areas of the world to try to generate outperformance.

Here are the best ETFs to buy for 2019. These 19 funds run the gamut, from highly diversified baskets invested in thousands of companies, to concentrated portfolios that use just a couple dozen stocks to benefit from a specific theme. There are ETFs for conservative investors and risk takers alike. And while most of these picks are passive index funds, there are even a few ETFs that tap the brainpower of skilled active management. Take a look:

Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF

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The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) - or at least some S&P 500 tracker fund - typically makes most "best ETFs" lists in any given year. That's because even the best money managers in the world have a hard time beating the market.

The SPIVA U.S. Year-End 2017 report showed that in 2017, 63.08% of large-cap managers underperformed the S&P 500. That's not good, and it gets worse as time goes on - 80.56% underperformed in the three-year period, 84.23% in the five-year, 89.51% in the 10-year and 92.33% in the 15-year.

Beating the market certainly is much more difficult for "mom 'n' pop" investors, who might spend only a couple hours every month examining their investments ... so why not simply match the market with the VOO or a similar fund?

But this year, investors may want to consider the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI, $131.96). Why? Because Vanguard itself sees it as the better option for its employees. In 2018, Vanguard removed the S&P 500-tracking Vanguard Institutional Index Fund (VINIX) from its 401(k) and replaced it with the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund (VTSMX).

"We believe the (VTSMX) is the best proxy for the U.S. market, offering exposure to large-, mid-, and small-cap stocks, whereas Vanguard Institutional Index Fund concentrates on large-cap stocks," a spokesman told MarketWatch in confirming a Philadelphia Inquirer report about the change.

The VTI provides exposure to more than 3,600 stocks of all sizes - from $783.4 billion Microsoft (MSFT) to $5.8 million Pernix Therapeutics Holdings (PTX) - giving investors much more comprehensive exposure to the U.S. stock market. At the same time, VTI's holdings are weighted by market capitalization, which means the largest companies still have the most sway in the ETF's performance.

The result? The VTI performs very similarly to the VOO, beating it by a few basis points some years, falling behind a little in others. It's also one of: For a skinflint 0.04% in expenses, you pay just $4 annually for every $10,000 invested.