I've been investing for about 15 years. During that time, the vast majority of my investments have gone toward individual stocks. But I recently put a significant amount of my wealth, about 12%, into an exchange-traded fund, or ETF.

The ETF provides exposure to a segment of the market where I previously had none. It was a big hole in my portfolio, but it presents a great opportunity for long-term investors. And that opportunity looks increasingly appealing in today's market.

While I could've done the research to learn about specific stocks in this segment, there were several reasons why I felt an ETF would work out better than relying on individual names. So, in the recent market sell-off, I bought shares of the Avantis U.S. Small Cap Value ETF (NYSEMKT: AVUV).

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Source Fool.com