Blue-chip averages carved out mouth-watering gains in 2017, thanks to a favorable macroeconomic milieu and still-accommodative monetary policy environment. The S&P 500 Index, a broader gauge, added 19.42 percent for the year, while the more narrow Dow Industrial Average advanced 25.08 percent. The tech-weighted Nasdaq Composite Index gained 28.24 percent. Finding value in an overbought market is tough, and a trading strategy called the "dogs of the Dow" has shown to be a safer bet for picking stocks that can consistently beat the total market return.Source