Actually I'm good on that front, I never missed a major Bitcoin wave up and I don't have any plans to do so in the future.
At the time, it was simply useless to sell into the market because it was too easily moved at those points. Back then, we really did have manipulators. Somewhere from $4 on the way down I just stopped trading it to make BTC while losing USD, held the BTC and went away. I was sitting on profits, but of course it still hurt.
Only thing I try to do is hedge my risks for the major waves and position myself. If this market goes back to a good value proposition (and a similar despair!), I will see things similarly again as I move a good portion to a paper wallet. If I am wrong, I will see it and buy back. I don't fight the market. Everyone has his strategies, I prefer a more active approach to managing my risk (BTC gains are actually only secondary) while riding the long-term bull and it's working well for me.
Any non-trader must admit that there are hype cycles with Bitcoin as a bunch of newbies quickly flow in and then many of them slowly flow out as they get bored, and it's expressed in the bubbles. What remains at the end is the long-term trend.
BTW, this topic was created on a day when Bitcoin ranged from 3.8 to 4.5 and was on its way up to 7.22 where it would then consolidate for many months around 5. 7.22 was broken only in July 2012, half a year after we topped out at 7.22.