[7] The messages, which were an April Fool's joke designed to teach a lesson about penny stock investing, garnered widespread attention, including an article in The Wall Street Journal.

[11] The book was controversial; Bloomberg wrote about The Motley Fool's "Fanatical following",[12] while a PBS Frontline episode described the company as made up of "20-somethings" giving "so-called advice".

However, Zweig said the Motley Fool staff made outlandish claims such as the ability to "crush mutual funds [in] only 15 minutes a year", used needlessly complicated mathematical formulas and he questioned the method's effectiveness.

[26] In August 2018, the company launched a personal-finance sub-brand called The Ascent[27] to provide personal finance product reviews and free educational resources.

[29] Representatives of The Motley Fool have testified before Congress against mutual fund fees,[30] in support of fair financial disclosure,[31] on the Enron scandal,[32] and the IPO process.

[33] In 1999, the Securities and Exchange Commission proposed Regulation Fair Disclosure, which would require companies to simultaneously give vital information to Wall Street analysts and the public.

[34] The regulation passed, and in the July 2, 2001, edition of The Wall Street Journal, former SEC chairman Arthur Levitt is quoted saying, "Two-thirds of our letters came from Fools.