The best disclosures by financial writers

Virtually every business and financial news source on the Internet now has a disclosure policy that requires its writers to disclose whether they own shares in the stocks they’re writing about. After the analyst scandals from earlier in the decade, I used to always check for these disclosures to see what they said.

But nobody does disclosure like The Motley Fool, which has some of my favorite all-time disclosures. In fact, I often find myself scanning Fool articles just to read the disclosures at the end. Many of their writers have turned the disclosure into an art form.

Here’s a collection of some disclosures from Tuesday’s articles:

— Mac Greer doesn’t own any shares of Apple. He once owned an IBM Selectric II typewriter and thought it couldn’t get any better. He was wrong.

— Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz is always on the lookout for a good steakhouse. Thankfully, he has plenty — including a Smith & Wollensky — in Miami. He does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned in this story.

— Fool contributor Will Frankenhoff is enjoying his time writing for the Fool more than reading The Financial Times, rooting for the Jints, or taking a nap. He welcomes your feedback at elves1us@yahoo.com. He does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned above.

— Fool contributor Tim Beyers, ranked 1,095 out of more than 20,000 players in CAPS, didn’t own shares in any of the companies mentioned in this story at the time of publication. Get the skinny on all the stocks he owns by checking Tim’s Fool profile. The Motley Fool’s disclosure policy is hotter than city asphalt in the summer heat.

— Rex Moore certifies that no keyboards were harmed in the writing of this story. He owns no companies mentioned in this article. Intel is an Inside Value recommendation. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

And then there’s this gem: Fool contributor S.J. Caplan has been an undercover fixed income aficionado ever since serving in banking and legal capacities covering debt underwriting as well as fixed income derivatives. She owns U.S. Treasuries and shares of the Fidelity Inflation Protected Bond Fund. She prefers her portfolio shaken, not stirred.

It’s nice to see that not everyone in business journalism takes themselves seriously. I doubt stuff like this would fly at The Wall Street Journal. Only Allan Sloan at Newsweek enjoys himself this much when writing about investments.