There are a number of common signs which indicate that your broker may have committed securities fraud. If you suspect fraudulent broker conduct, you should examine your account, as well as your broker's transactions on your account, in order to definitively determine whether fraud has occurred. For instance, if you are receiving an excessive amount of purchase and sale confirmations from your broker on your account, your broker may be engaged in a fraudulent practice known as "churning", by which a broker earns additional commissions for making excessive trades. Likewise, if you see that your account has quickly declined in value over a relatively short period of time, you may want to question your broker's reliability, and dedication to meeting your financial goals and needs. Furthermore, if your broker seems to be pushing you to own ﾖ and not sell ﾖ certain stocks or classes of stocks, keep in mind that your broker may have another motive for encouraging you to purchase the stock, such as personal financial gain.