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)

A flying lemur glides through the air in West Java, Indonesia in the first decade of October 2023. The photographer said the animal veered away from him at the last minute. (Photo by Dzul Dzulfikri/Animal News Agency)

In this photo taken late Thursday, May 7, 2015, a prison guard, left, and seated inmates cast shadows on a wall while waiting for the beginning of a rock concert by Romanian band Pro Musica, inside the Popa Sapca jail in Timisoara, western Romania. (Photo by Adi Piclisan/AP Photo)

A Kashmiri man cover his head with plastic bag as it snows in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Thursday, November 7, 2019. The region received its first snow on Wednesday, bringing temperatures down drastically and affecting air and vehicular traffic. (Photo by Mukhtar Khan/AP Photo)

A woman carries earthen pots to fill them with drinking water on a hot summer day, on the outskirts of Ajmer, Rajasthan, India April 25, 2017. (Photo by Himanshu Sharma/Reuters)

A woman holds her dog after arriving from Russian-occupied territory at a registration and processing area for internally displaced people in Zaporizhzhia, in Ukraine, on May 8, 2022. (Photo by Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP Photo)

A photograph made available on 02 October 2016 showing Indian people dressed in traditional attire performing the Garba dance, a ritual performed to appease Goddess Durga, in a religious event named, “Abhivyakti 2016” during the nine-day long Navratri festival in Bhopal, India, 01 October 2016 Celebrated twice a year during the spring and the fall season, the Navratri festival is dedicated to the Hindu Goddess Durga. (Photo by Sanjeev Gupta/EPA)

A plane leaves Qatar Airport as the sun rises behind the Mosque at Souq Waqif in Doha, Qatar on Friday, December 9, 2022. (Photo by Peter Byrne/PA Images via Getty Images)