Jan. 8 (Bloomberg) — It has been quite the ride for gold: from under $500 an ounce decade ago, to above $1,900 in 2011, gold gained more than 400 percent. Since its peak of ~$1,921.15 on Sept. 6, 2011, however, the shine is off the yellow metal. Gold plummeted 38 percent, recently breaking below $1,200. Yesterday's close is within 5 percent of the lows, at $1,241.

If a 20 percent drop is described as a bear market, and a 30 percent fall is called a crash — what do we call gold's nearly 40 percent plummet?

This column is not an "I told-you-so" or an exercise in "Goldenfreude" (describing a "delight in gold bugs' collective pain"). Rather, it is an attempt to learn some investing lessons from the epic rise and horrific fall of gold.