Finance Blogs and Conflicts of Interest

When journalists call to chat about finance blogs in general and The Seeking Alpha Network in particular, one topic they always express concern about is editiorial integrity:

• With (often anonymous) blogs, how do I know what I'm reading is accurate?
• How do I know that the author isn't trying to "pump and dump" a stock?
• How do I know the author has disclosed any position in the stock being written about?

Particularly since the Spitzer reforms of equity research and investment banking and the spill-over into financial publishing, this is a hot topic. It's now spilled-over into this blog. If you haven't already seen it, take a look at my write-up of the Gold Investing Blog, the passionate comment from the author below, and my response.