Whether a novice or a pro, we all may mistakes investing.

Sadly, for many of us, 2008 proved to be a year rich with bad options and negative results -- or, as I prefer to call them, learning opportunities.

Here's a review of some of the most painful learning opportunities in 2008:

#1 Going long the specialty retailers: If you made a bet on the specialty retailers leading up to the first $600 taxpayer rebate stimulus package, you got hammered.

#2 Betting on the China bull: Several ETFs that gave investors indexed exposure to Chinese stocks saw their values get hit for as much as 70%.

#3 Buying non-durables: Seems the kitchen and bathroom stocks didn't work this time around.

#4 Buying financials: Buying the financials while the Fed was aggressively cutting interest rates was supposed to be a no-brainer.

#5 Betting on peak oil: Crude is now trading around $40 -- down $107 per barrel in less than six months. Unbelievable!

Typically, when the economy enters a recession, companies that are in the consumer non-durable sector, i.e., consumer staples, see their stocks trade higher as money flows into bulletproof subsectors of the economy that don't suffer from spending cuts.

Companies like Proctor & Gamble (NYSE: PG), Heinz (NYSE: HNZ), Hormel (NYSE: HRL), Kraft (NYSE: KFT), General Mills (NYSE: GIS), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), Pepsi (NYSE: PEP), Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO), Campbell Soup (NYSE: CPB), Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL) and even Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.B), which was down a whopping 49% before getting a year-end bounce.

I think Warren needs to get off TV and get back to work.

My point here is that all of these fortress names got beat up to the tune of 30% to 50% when they were supposed to be the go-to names that would put in a stealth rally in a bear market.

Seems the kitchen and bathroom stocks didn't work this time around.

Bryan Perry is a contributor to OptionsZone.com.