Take aways

There's going to be a lot of ongoing talk about class actions and what people lost.
It's regrettable.
I myself thought Babcock and Brown was a great buy and that I was a "value investor" all the way down to 50c where I sold at a $20,000 loss which was a lot of money to me at the time.
The lessons here are the same stick to the tried and true, long established conservatively financed institutions with stable earnings.
Straight out of the intelligent investor from the 1950's.
It's very easy for a Dick Smith to pump up 1 year of earnings, or a Quindell to grow noise induced hearing loss cases when they should be stable or declining.
That is the kind of understanding a business we need. You don't need to be an expert in corporate governance but it's obvious to me that earmuffs are reducing industrial deafness.
Seek counterargument - listen to both shorts and management critically knowing they both push a barrow.
Don't overestimate yourself.
We can like Doc say it was just unlucky or we can seek to improve.
The people who bought and held have the causes burnt into their brains right now, I would be interested if they agree or if there's any other advice they would leave to posterity.
I personally think SGH, ARI, STO (GLNG) are not acts of God they are mistakes of man. Markets are not perfectly efficient any more than humans are perfectly rational.
It doesn't have to be like this.