Some are in it just for the money, others to help buy a meal. Then there are those who trade for fun or to spend time among friends. Millions of investors – pensioners, security guards, high-school students – dominate China's stock markets, conducting about 80 percent of all trades. Retirees gather in brokerage houses dotted around China also to enjoy some company and savour the air conditioning on hot days. Some start as young as 13, trading from home with an eye on future careers in finance. Winning isn't guaranteed. This year, among the most turbulent in China's financial history, its stock markets more than doubled in the six months to May, only to crash amid concerns that growth in the country, which makes everything from cars to steel, is slowing faster than previously thought. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)

In this Thursday, February 14, 2019, photo, a Transformer's Bumblebee mascot helps a woman carries paper bags at a shopping mall in Handan in north China's Hebei province. U.S. and Chinese envoys are holding a second day of trade talks after the top economic adviser to President Donald Trump said he has yet to decide whether to go ahead with a March 2 tariff increase on imports from China. (Photo by Chinatopix via AP Photo)

A juvenile leopard cat, seized by authorities during an anti-smuggling operation, is seen past suspected smugglers during a press conference announcing the seizure of trafficked exotic animals in Surabaya on March 27, 2019. Indonesian authorities said March 27 they had seized five komodo dragons and dozens of other animals being sold on Facebook, as the country battles to clamp down on the illegal wildlife trade. (Photo by Juni Kriswanto/AFP Photo)

A tour group wanders through block 7 of Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania April 30, 2014. Opened in 1829, with the original corrective system of “confinement in solitude with labor”, the penitentiary housed about 75,000 inmates in its 142 years of operation. At Eastern State reunions, former inmates, staff and guard gather to share memories and trade stories and get a chance to describe their experiences in question-and-answer sessions with the public. (Photo by Mark Makela/Reuters)

To the woman presented a flower in Sevastopol, Ukraine, on March 8, 2013. Activists presented this day on the street free 155 tulips to women. The police tried to arrest activists for illegal trade as couldn't believe in free distribution of flowers. (Photo by Sergey Anashkevitch)

Chief priest Gbenga Saala raises a cutlass to kill a dog during an annual prayer and sacrifice celebration of the iron god Ogun in Abuja, Nigeria, June 23, 2015. Every year worshippers offer a dog as sacrifice to Ogun, a traditional Nigerian deity, in hope of an auspicious year ahead. Taxi drivers, blacksmiths, panel beaters and mechanics – trades that depend on metal for their livelihood – pay homage to Ogun, led by high priest Gbenga Saala. As part of the ceremony, the priest pours the dog’s blood on symbols of these workers’ trade: keys, spanners and other tools piled up in a metal barrel. (Photo by Afolabi Sotunde/Reuters)

A Chinese exhibitor checks lighting products at a booth during the China Import and Export Fair, also known as Canton Fair, in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou October 15, 2015. Around two thirds of exporters at China's largest trade fair expect the slowdown in their markets to persist for at least six months, a Reuters poll has found, with the country expected to announce its slowest economic growth in decades early next week. (Photo by Bobby Yip/Reuters)

Harry Potter collectible busts are displayed in the home of Menahem Asher Silva Vargas, after he was presented with a Guinness World Record title certificate for the largest collection of Harry Potter memorabilia, in Mexico City, Monday, September 29, 2014. Silva's collection consists of more than 3000 individual items, including trading cards, wands, and books in multiple languages. (Photo by Rebecca Blackwell/AP Photo)