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)

Clashes break out in the stands during the Euro 2016 Group B soccer match between England and Russia, at the Velodrome stadium in Marseille, France, Saturday, June 11, 2016. (Photo by Thanassis Stavrakis/AP Photo)

Venezuela's acting President and presidential candidate Nicolas Maduro kisses a painting of late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez during a campaign rally in the state of Vargas April 9, 2013. Venezuelans will hold presidential elections on April 14. Maduro promised on Tuesday to hike Venezuela's minimum wage by about 40 percent if he is elected in a weekend vote to replace late socialist leader Chavez. (Photo by Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters)

A man rides a motorcycle on a flooded street following heavy rains in Sanaa, Yemen on April 22, 2024. (Photo by Khaled Abdullah/Reuters)

(L-R) A man nicknamed "Barcelona", Alexey Bolotov and Alexey Jakushin drink vodka as they travel by a pioneer motorised railcar on their way to Kalach, Sverdlovsk region, Russia October 18, 2015. The "pioneer," a light auxiliary rail vehicle, is a popular form of transport among people who live along the Alapayevsk railway. In a remote corner of the Urals region at the end of a narrow-gauge railway is Kalach, population about a dozen. Three decades ago 600 people called the village home, but the local forestry industry suffered as the former Soviet Union imploded and people moved away in search of work. In Kalach today there are no telephones, no mobile reception and only a few hours of electricity a day. (Photo by Maxim Zmeyev/Reuters)

A Palestinian female masked militant from the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad, takes part in an Islamic Jihad rally in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, 29 July 2016. (Photo by Mohammed Saber/EPA)

A woman wearing a protective face mask makes merit during the Songkran holiday which marks the Thai New Year during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Bangkok, Thailand, April 13, 2022. (Photo by Chalinee Thirasupa/Reuters)

Jockey student Mariangelys Almedina (Front) balances on a steel drum suspended in the air by a series of springs to simulate riding a horse as Instructor Willie Lozano looks on at the Vocational Equestrian Agustín Mercado Reverón School located in the Hipódromo Camarero on November 17, 2022 in Canovanas, Puerto Rico. The Vocational Equestrian Agustín Mercado Reverón School has produced some of the best jockeys in the world but also prepares students for a wide range of equestrian jobs on a tuition-free basis. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)