More than 30 years of research in Cognitive Linguistics has demonstrated metaphor to be central in influencing perception, attitudes and behavior in news media consumers. In reporting on the stock market, and particularly in times of crisis, there are numerous ethical considerations involved. This talk explores the concept of “ethical quality” in the use of metaphor towards bringing the use of metaphor as a communicative tool into closer conversation with common journalism ideals and industry standards for excellence such as “truth,” “fairness” and “accuracy” and proposes a four-tiered model in which ethical quality is explored in terms of interpretation reliability and cognitive efficiency. The model differentiates between ethical excellence, ethical sensitization, ethical compliance and unethical uses of metaphor.