To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln (or was it Bob Marley?), you can fool some investors all of the time, and all investors some of the time, but you can't fool all investors all of the time—unless, of course, they don't review their brokerage account statements and trade confirmations.

I know. These documents don't exactly make for fun reading, especially at times when your portfolio is taking a beating. But becoming a regular—and astute—reader of your brokerage statements and confirmations can help you spot or avert potentially costly problems, ranging from innocent mistakes ("Oops, you mean you only wanted to buy 100 shares of that stock, not 1,000?") to actual misconduct, such as unauthorized trades or overcharges.

And what better day to start than today, April Fools' Day? Here are some tricks and traps to be alert to, courtesy of Gerri Walsh, vice president of investor education at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (Finra), the securities industry's self-regulatory body.

Whether you are a do-it-yourself investor with an online brokerage account, or you get investment recommendations from a broker at a full-service brokerage firm, you'll typically receive an account statement monthly, or at least quarterly, and a trade confirmation every time you buy or sell a security. These might come electronically or via snail mail.

You also might receive a consolidated statement, showing your holdings across all your accounts. These are supplements to—not replacements for—the regular quarterly statements. If you get both, read and compare them, but know that it's the official quarterly statement that governs in the unfortunate event of a dispute with your broker or brokerage firm.

Your statements and confirmations might come from the brokerage firm you opened your account with or from the clearing firm that settles, or "clears," your trades and holds your securities. (Many of the largest brokerages "self clear," but most use third-party clearing firms.)

Beware of con artists pretending to be brokers and claiming to have relationships with well-known clearing firms. Among the red flags: statements with inconsistent account information, phone numbers that always seem to be busy, out-of-service or unanswered, and crooked or fuzzy logos.

You can find out whether a broker is licensed to do business in your state or has ever been sanctioned for securities violations by going to, and clicking on "BrokerCheck."

Fees: Trading commissions should be clearly disclosed on your confirmations. Scrutinize any ancillary fees. Last year, Finra fined five brokerage firms for mischaracterizing portions of their sales commissions as postage and handling fees that in some cases approached $100 per transaction, far in excess of the actual cost of the "handling" services the firms provided.

Bond prices typically include an invisible layer of fees—known as the "markup" or "markdown." This is the brokerage firm's compensation, but it does not necessarily have to be itemized on your confirmation.

Last month, Finra fined a subsidiary of Citigroup for charging customers excessive markups and markdowns over a period of years on corporate and agency bonds. Citigroup agreed to pay the fine without admitting or denying the charges. If you buy bonds, you can check the going prices on the Finra website or at

Account activity: Always compare transactions listed on your account statement with your trade confirmations. Even if you have given your broker permission to buy and sell securities on your behalf, you should still be receiving confirmations for each trade.

If your statement starts showing a lot of buys and sells, especially if you haven't been receiving confirmations for all of them, it could be a sign that your broker is "churning" your account to rack up commissions.

Also, make sure trades are properly categorized on your confirmations as either "solicited"—meaning they were the broker's idea—or "unsolicited"—meaning they were your idea. If an investment was your broker's idea but is reflected on the confirmation as an unsolicited trade, it could be a sign that the broker is trying to hide an aggressive or inappropriate sale or engaging in insider trading.

And that's no joke: If you have a problem that you cannot resolve with your broker, brokerage or clearing firm, you can file a complaint at the Finra website.