Women sells vegetables at Kaporo market in Conakry, Guinea Monday, September 13, 2021. (Photo by Sunday Alamba/AP Photo)

Vendor Yegor Dyachkovsky, 45, poses for a picture at an open-air market on a frosty day in Yakutsk, Russia, January 15, 2023. Yakutsk, one of the Russia's north-most cities, is hit by an extreme cold snap as the air temperature on Sunday (January 15) plunged as low as minus 51 degrees Celsius (minus 59.8 degrees Fahrenheit). (Photo by Roman Kutukov/Reuters)

A street merchant waits for customers in Niamey, Niger, Monday, August 14, 2023. Niger's mutinous soldiers say they will prosecute deposed President Mohamed Bazoum for “high treason” and undermining state security. (Photo by Sam Mednick/AP Photo)

A pigeon stretches its wings in the Ka Faroshi bird market in Kabul on July 16, 2022. (Photo by Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP Photo)

Actress Hiba Abouk attends Hugo Boss night party 2011 on December 13, 2011 in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Carlos Alvarez/Getty Images)

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)

Starting on Monday, August 12, Perseid meteors will streak across the summer sky for a couple of nights, offering casual stargazers and serious nighttime photographers a chance to capture a glimpse of the annual meteor shower. Photo: Photographer David Kingham created this composite image from 23 photos on August 12, 2012. (Photo by David Kingham)

A teenage girl from the Santa Marta favela slum puts on a pair of high heels for a group debutante ball organized by the Pacifying Police Unit from her neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Friday, August 29, 2014. The ball, which relied on volunteers who coiffed and made up the girls and a formal wear shop that loaned the dresses, helped build goodwill between pacified favelas' residents and the officers who patrol them. (Photo by Silvia Izquierdo/AP Photo via The Palm Beach Post)