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)

Dancer Maithili Vijayakumar performs on the occasion of the launch of 2021 Diwali celebrations, at St. Andrew Square in Edinburgh, Scotland, Tuesday, November 16, 2021. The multi-cultural celebration will take place for the first time in two years in the center of Edinburgh on Sunday, Nov. 21. (Photo by Andrew Milligan/PA Wire via AP Photo)

A U.S. President Donald Trump mask is seen for sale in a market in Hong Kong, China on December 23, 2019. (Photo by Lucy Nicholson/Reuters)

Ten segments of the Berlin Wall, which constitute the longest stretch outside of Berlin, are seen on display in Los Angeles, California September 18, 2014. On November 9, Germany will celebrate the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. To mark the event Reuters Photographers around the world captured images of segments of the wall, which are kept as monuments in many countries from Taiwan to South Africa and Costa Rica. (Photo by Mario Anzuoni/Reuters)

In this March 7, 1991 file photo, a U.S. Marine patrol walks across the charred oil landscape near a burning well during perimeter security patrol near Kuwait City. Twenty five years after the first U.S. Marines swept across the border into Kuwait in the 1991 Gulf War, American forces find themselves battling the extremist Islamic State group, born out of al-Qaida, in the splintered territories of Iraq and Syria. The Arab allies that joined the 1991 coalition are fighting their own conflicts both at home and abroad, as Iran vies for greater regional power following a nuclear deal with world powers. (Photo by John Gaps III/AP Photo)

A model presents a creation by designer Olivier Rousteing as part of his Spring/Summer 2022 women's ready-to-wear collection show for fashion house Balmain during Paris Fashion Week in Paris, France, September 29, 2021. (Photo by Stephane Mahe/Reuters)

The popular K-pop group Blackpink watch the fireworks at Etihad Park from the stage at the end of the show in Abu Dhabi on Saturday, February 4, 2023. (Photo by Live Nation Entertainment)

A woman falls as police move in to disperse protesters in Trafalgar Square in London on September 26, 2020, at a “We Do Not Consent!” mass rally against vaccination and government restrictions designed to fight the spread of the novel coronavirus, including the wearing of masks and taking tests for the virus. (Photo by Justin Tallis/AFP Photo)