Any suggestions on a stable long term ETF?

Day 4 of trading. I still have placenta juice all over me from the newness, so forgive me. QUESTION: A member on this site discouraged me from buying mutual funds as opposed to ETFs which you can do a lot more with. My question is, what would be a good suggestion on a long term ETF that is stable, (even in this current market), and that has a decent payoff? I'm looking to invest a few hundred dollars into such a long term ETF that has been known to give a decent payoff over time, and if anyone on here has had success with one or more that they can recommend, the info would be GREATLY appreciated!

Right now that is a tough one to answer. Nothing is stable. Much depends on the entry point.

One that I own long is PFF. This is an income play and is currently near it's low. It is a basket of preferred stocks. There is a good chance of capital gain as well as 10% yield.

Horsefish: How much of the PFF is Ford and Fannie and Freddie and others where the preferred shareholders are expected to take a beating or even get wiped out?

what do you mean by "stable" and "payoff" ?

i just checked some of the top ETF's held and they are all trading closely to or are setting their 52 week lows, other than GLD

Abn Amro Cap Fdg T N/A 3.7 ...... Barclays Bk Plc (Bacr) 8.1250 % Series N/A
Bk Amer Pfd N/A 6.43
Citigroup Inc 8.50% Series F N/A 4.02
Credit Suisse Guernsey N/A 4.35
Hsbc Hldgs Plc (Hsbc) 8.1250% Series N/A 4.53
Ing Groep N V Pfd N/A 3.97
Merrill Lynch Pfd N/A 3.84
Metlife Pfd N/A 4.24
Royal Bk Scotland Grp N/A