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 sandstorm hits the city of Zhangye in Gansu province, China on November 27, 2018. (Photo by Reuters/China Stringer Network)

A tourist takes a selfie with pelicans on the bench in St. James's Park in Westminster, central London on June 19, 2024. (Photo by Marcin Nowak/London News Pictures)

A boy covers his head with fallen leaves as he enjoys a stroll with his family in a park in downtown Frankfurt, Germany, November 6, 2016. (Photo by Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters)

A dancer performs as visitors take pictures at an auto show in Tianjin, China April 28, 2016. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Somali women walk near a fish put on display by fishermen at the Liido beach in Mogadishu, Somalia on May 13, 2024. (Photo by Feisal Omar/Reuters)

A carnival member performs during a carnival procession of the closing carnival night in the town of Strumica, southeastern North Macedonia, 16 March 2024. North Macedonians are marking Trimery, an Orthodox Christian holiday, when evil spirits are chased away with dance rituals. The holiday marks the beginning of the fasting period ahead of Easter. (Photo by Georgi Licovski/EPA/EFE)

A photo provided by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution shows Atlanta police officer T. R. Coxe removing painted material of a large swastika featuring a likeness of Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, along the northbound Buford Highway Connector just south of the Piedmont exit, in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, 09 December 2015. Just days after Donald Trump's call to ban Muslims from entering the United States, someone painted large swastikas featuring the Republican presidential candidate's face on at least two northeast Atlanta bridge supports. The symbol, which includes a cartoon of Trump sporting a Hitler-like mustache, was painted along the Buford Highway Connector. A second, similar image was found on a concrete bridge support on nearby Piedmont Road. Trump said in a statement released on 07 December that there should be a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States. (Photo by John Spink/EPA/AJC)