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 woman walks at the Boulevard of the River the eve of the International Women's Day, in Cali, Colombia, 07 March 2019. (Photo by Ernesto Guzman Jr./EPA/EFE)

People try to get a roast chicken at the first Costco outlet in China, on the stores opening day in Shanghai on August 27, 2019. China has proved a brutal battleground for overseas food retailers in recent years, with many failing to understand consumer habits and tastes as well as local competitors building a stronger presence. (Photo by Hector Retamal/AFP Photo)

A bride weeps in a mass wedding ceremony at the CheongShim Peace World Center in Gapyeong, South Korea, Wednesday, February 12, 2014. Some 2,500 South Korean and foreign couples exchanged or reaffirmed marriage vows in the Unification Church's mass wedding arranged by Hak Ja Han Moon, wife of the late Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the controversial founder of the Unification Church. (Photo by Lee Jin-man/AP Photo)

A woman toes a tube carrying a man during the Ice and snow carnival at Taoranting park in Beijing, China, January 25, 2016. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

People brave the wind on the waterfront of Victoria Habour as Typhoon Haima approaches Hong Kong, Friday, October 21, 2016. Typhoon Haima churned toward southern China on Friday after smashing into the northern Philippines with ferocious wind and rain, triggering flooding, landslides and power outages. (Photo by Vincent Yu/AP Photo)

Meghan Puhr participates in a virtual realty presentation during an Intel news conference before CES International, Wednesday, January 4, 2017, in Las Vegas. (Photo by John Locher/AP Photo)

Kimono-clad women enjoy the view from Tokyo Sky Tree’s 350-meter-high observation deck in Sumida Ward, Tokyo, on the Coming of Age Day, January 9, 2017. Sumida Ward invited about 430 local 20-year-old to the deck to celebrate them. Many city governments invite local 20-years-old to there’s symbolic places and celebrate for their Coming of Age Day. (Photo by The Yomiuri Shimbun via AP Images)