Cheap Marketing Tactic from The Motley Fool?

I recently read a Motley Fool article "The Saucy Tarts of Value". The basic idea is that once in a while you can find really good bargains in the fashion retailer stocks. The article lists a bunch of fashion retailer stocks, their 52 week lows, today's prices, and the potential gains if you had bought at 52-week low and hold them today.

The eye catching part is the potential gain from 52-week low -- it's all positive, ranging from 8% to 240%. Here's their chart:

My first impression is that it may be a good idea to invest in these fashion retailer stocks. But as a trained engineer, I always want to check an idea further before throwing myself into it.

Fortunately, Yahoo Finance provides such a tool for you as you add the "Pct from Yr Low" item for view on your portfolio. I added it and then started to laugh. What I saw is that the potential gain from 52-week low for all the stocks that I hold or watch is all beautifully positive -- ranging from 5% to 400%.

The real trick is that no one can consistently buy stock at the absolute bottom. You may do it once or twice in your lifetime, but most likely either you buy early or buy late at a price considerably higher than the bottom, or never buy. Thus bottom fishing is a tough business.

The Motley Fool article is just a marketing trick to suck people into buying their investment newsletters.