Here are some of the lessons I learned:  

1. 1)When faced with severe losses, it’s nearly impossible to objectively evaluate your position.
2. 2)Leverage can be a killer.
3. 3)A trading plan should be simple, not based on the collective opinions of 15 financial authors.
4. 4)Never buy front month out of the money options, they are strictly for crazy speculators.  If you’re going to use these, sell them to crazy speculators against your longer-term positions.
5. 5)Bullish and Bearish divergences fail frequently.
6. 6)If you want to arrive early to the party, be prepared to wait a long time for the action to arrive.
7. 7)Those funny Greek names, Delta and Theta, actually mean something!
8. 8)It’s not acceptable to have multiple blowups like this.  Many great traders have suffered a crushing capital blow early in their careers, only to return stronger and wiser.  Others, like Jesse Livermore, ended his career (and life) after one too many detonations.