If your broker tells you to buy stock in a company because he thinks it’s going up, and it goes down instead, there’s not much you can do. However, if the broker breaks one of the rules of the National Association of Securities Dealers, you might have some recourse.

The NASD, which regulates brokers, prohibits them from recommending investments that are unsuitable given the customer’s age, financial situation and investment and experience; from purchasing or selling securities without the investor’s permission (unless the customer has given the broker signed discretionary); from switching an investor from one mutual fund to another for no legitimate investment reason; from misrepresenting or failing to disclose material facts and from removing funds or securities from an investor’s account permission. For a full list of broker rules see www.nasd.com/InvestorInformation/InvestorProtection/ProhibitedConduct/index.htm

For more information, go to the NASD Investor Complaint Center at https://apps.nasd.com/Investor_Information/Complaints/complaintCenter.asp.

You can find the SEC’s online complaint form at http://www.sec.gov/complaint/selectconduct.shtml.