I'm not particularly thrilled with FINRA's write-up of this case.  If FINRA meant to imply that selling a closed-end fund purchased via an IPO after six months is, somehow, patently unsuitable -- well, that doesn't work for me.  There could me many explanations for the sale, not the least of which are cutting losses, profit taking, customer's need for funds, etc.  Further, FINRA seems to suggest that the fact that a customer lost $350,000 is also indicative of unsuitability if the customer's objectives were "conservative to moderate."  Again, that's too slick for me. It suggests that it's never appropriate to lose money for a client who seeks conservative or moderate objectives.

What I suspect FINRA meant to say was that it was troubled by an account where the broker generated $100,000 in commissions on sales that resulted in $350,000 in customer losses. Not sure that I would concur with the regulator that such a scenario is a "suitability" issue.  There may be other violations inherent in those facts -- excessive commissions, mark-up/down concerns, etc.  Clearly, this monthly explanation needed a bit more fleshing out to make sense.