Management announced the new policy in a town hall meeting with CNBC employees yesterday.

The new policy strengthens existing rules that require staff to hold stocks for at least four months and in many cases to gain approval before executing trades.

The new rules require that top management, newsroom staff and on-air talent divest their portfolios of any individual stocks they own by January 2005, according to sources. The policy includes all spouses, dependants and relatives that live in the same household.

These staff members can continue to own mutual funds and shares of parent company General Electric that are held in 401(k) plans.

Staff outside the newsroom can continue to hold stocks they already own, but are barred from buying more. Their accounts are in effect frozen until they leave the company.

In a statement, CNBC said: "CNBC's reputation for integrity is paramount to what we do and is key to our viewers. We continually work to set the highest possible standards in everything we do, which is our role as the industry leader."

The old policy included random audits. Employees that sold stock also had to gain approval from legal staff for trades involving at least 500 shares or $20,000 worth of stock.

On-air talent also had to disclose their holdings in any company they were reporting on.