Are you gambling? Or Investing? The Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling has a quiz you can take to help you decide if you have a problem, and suggests where you can go for help.

What To Do If You Have a Complaint

Act promptly. By law, you only have a limited time to take legal action. Follow these steps to solve your problem:

1. Talk to your broker or online firm and ask for an explanation. Take notes of the answers you receive.

2. If you are dissatisfied with the response and believe that you have been treated unfairly, ask to talk with the broker's branch manager. In the case of an online firm, go directly to step number three.

3. If your are still dissatisfied, write to the compliance department at the firm's main office. Explain your problem clearly, and tell the firm how you want it resolved. Ask the compliance office to respond to you in writing within 30 days.

4. If you're still dissatisfied, then send a letter of complaint to the National Association of Securities Dealers, your state securities administrator, or to the Office of Investor Education and Assistance at the SEC along with copies of the letters you've sent already to the firm.

Online Brokerage Accounts: What You Can Do to Safeguard Your Money and Your Personal Information

Let's hope this never happens to you: You have a few free minutes so you decide to go online to check your brokerage account information.  Your account balance is much lower than you expect - and you know that, at least for today, neither the market nor any of your securities fell in value.  You see that there were several wire transfers of money from your account to an outside checking account.  But you never authorized those transactions - instead, an identity thief did, and that thief has now stolen your cash as well as your personal information.