The past several months have been torture for anyone who owns tech stocks.

After a heroic run in 2017 bled into the beginning of 2018, led by the so-called "FAANG" stocks - Facebook (FB), Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), Netflix (NFLX) and Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) - the technology sector has been severely battered and bruised since early October.

That beating may have run its full course, though, and in retrospect looks like a garden-variety correction that tech stocks often must make. Besides, as volatile and unpredictable as the sector can be, technology still is technology - it remains the best growth opportunity that investors will find for the indefinite future.

With that as the backdrop, here are a dozen of the best tech stocks to buy for 2019. These companies all should perform better in the new year than they did in 2018. And in a few cases, a solid dividend and strong track record of payout increases bolsters the bullish case.

Nvidia

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Nvidia (NVDA, $115.40) has taken investors on a roughly three-year roller coaster ride. After gaining nearly 800% between the beginning of 2016 and the high hit in October 2018, NVDA shares have been cut nearly in half.

The meltdown of the cryptocurrency market was a contributing factor, sure. But investors likely also realized the stock had gotten more than a little ahead of the company's profits.

That said, the selloff from the early October peak is just as overdone as the preceding runup was. That translates into opportunity.

The average investor largely misunderstands Nvidia's product mix, and therefore its revenue mix. As frenzied as crypto-mania was at its pinnacle, it was never a breadwinner for