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)

Graduates dance as they take part in a “Last school bell” ceremony at a school in Minsk, Belarus on May 30, 2018. (Photo by Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters)

Military Chaplain Nikolay Medynsky blesses a Ukrainian soldier before he goes into battle, as Russia's attack on the Ukraine continues, in Kyiv, Ukraine, March 13, 2022. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)

A child looks out from a bus window after fleeing from Ukraine to Romania, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, at the border crossing in Siret, Romania, March 13, 2022. (Photo by Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters)

Ukrainian serviceman Valerii looks on at a position in a frontline, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Mykolaiv region, Ukraine on October 26, 2022. (Photo by Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters)

A woman poses next to an artwork depicting Kerch bridge on fire, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in central Kyiv, Ukraine on October 8, 2022. (Photo by Vladyslav Musiienko/Reuters)

Rescuers work to put out fire outside a damaged residential building hit by recent shelling in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in Donetsk, Russian-controlled Ukraine on November 7, 2023. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

A serviceman of Ukraine's coast guard mans a gun on a patrol boat as a cargo ship passes by in the Black Sea, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, on February 7, 2024. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)