The balance of 30% can be invested into areas such as government securities, gilts or blue-chip shares.

If you toss out January, a spectacular month for small-capitalization stocks, blue-chip shares have actually led the market this year.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index in creased 4.2 percent, propped up by continued government buying of blue-chip shares.

Like other blue-chip shares, Deutsche Telekom is listed on the DAX index.

The Dow Jones industrial average of 30 blue-chip shares surpassed other indicators by rising 22.6 percent.

All the major blue-chip shares rode the crest of the wave.

According to Mr. Birinyi, even as the prices of blue-chip shares were falling, demand for them was surprisingly strong.

Another is that small stocks, because of their recent run-up, are now more expensive than blue-chip shares.

(Big Board advocates say that the exchange handles more than $20 trillion a day in trading of blue-chip shares without Archipelago, so how bad could it be?)

"Large caps have lagged for so long," he said, noting that blue-chip shares have lagged behind small caps for around five years.