Book excerpt: 2016 was genuinely an extraordinary year for investors and for financial markets. This book offers a chronological run down of sentiment and commentary as events unfolded and the year progressed, written and observed from an Australian perspective inside the centre of turmoil and confusion. The ultimate goal is not so much to preserve the memories of what became an episode filled with macro and micro surprises, and wild volatility, but more so to preserve, accumulate and highlight experiences and insights, and to draw valuable, timeless lessons. This is not just a book about 2016. The author's ambition is for it to stay relevant long after 2016 has disappeared from everyone's calendar.