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)

Hamar women dance before a bull jumping ceremony in Ethiopia's southern Omo Valley region near Turmi on September 19, 2016. The Hamar are a Nilotic ethnic group in Ethiopia. The construction of the Gibe III dam, the third largest hydroelectric plant in Africa, and large areas of very “thirsty” cotton and sugar plantations and factories along the Omo river are impacting heavily on the lives of tribes living in the Omo Valley who depend on the river for their survival and way of life. (Photo by Carl De Souza/AFP Photo)

Londoners enjoy a “Silent Night” as Big Ben falls silent, London, UK on August 21, 2017. ose Allerston from Clapham, London said “After a stressful day in the office, I couldn't think of anything better than going home and climbing into bed – but when I saw this bed opposite Big Ben I just couldn't resist getting in for a snuggle”. (Photo by Imagewise Ltd/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Villagers from Jiexi Jiantan village perform a ritual of “Zha Laoye”, or “Cracking local spirits”, in Chaoshan, Guangdong Province, China, 10 February 2019. Jiexi Jiantan Village celebrates the annual custom of “Zha Laoye” where Laoye are local spirits. Every third day of the lunar New Year, statues of local spirits known as the “Thousand-mile Eye” Laoye and “Ear Following the Wind” Laoye are brought out to the village committee to receive incensed tea offered by believers. (Photo by EPA/EFE/ZNSEN)

Rows of workers shelter under umbrellas from the scorching heat as they painstakingly sort through a red carpet of millions of chilli peppers in Bogra, Bangladesh on October 3, 2023. They sort the rotten and broken chilli peppers out to separate the poor quality ones which won't sell. In a line, the pickers who are paid less than £3 for a 10-hour shift slowly move forward with their baskets to separate the bad from the good after the chilies have been dried in the sun for a week. (Photo by Joy Saha/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Dilwyn Green, from North Wales, holds his 7 month old Gold Silkie Bantam which won a 1st prize in its breed at the Poultry Club's 2011 National Show on November 19, 2011 in Stoneleigh, England. (Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images)

Sikh devotee take part in Nagar Keertan procession on the occasion of Guru Gobind Singh birth anniversary in Allahabad, India on December 29, 2016. Guru Gobind Singh, born Gobind Rai (1666 – 1708), was the 10th Sikh Guru, a spiritual master, warrior, poet and philosopher. When his father, Guru Tegh Bahadur, was beheaded for refusing to convert to Islam, Guru Gobind Singh was formally installed as the leader of the Sikhs at age nine, becoming the last of the living Sikh Gurus. (Photo by Prabhat Kumar Verma/Pacific Press via ZUMA Wire/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Festival goers attend day one of the Parklife Festival at Heaton Park on June 9, 2018 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Mercury Press)