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)

Masks based on real people's faces are diplayed at the Shuhei Okawara's mask shop in Tokyo, Japan on December 16, 2020. (Photo by Issei Kato/Reuters)

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)

An Extinction Rebellion activist takes part in a protest in Berlin, Germany on October 5, 2020. (Photo by Michele Tantussi/Reuters)

A Romanian honor guard soldier waits before the arrival of Moldovan President at Cotroceni Presidential Palace, in Bucharest, Romania, 23 November 2021. Maia Sandu is on a one-day official visit to Romania. (Photo by Robert Ghement/EPA/EFE)

A man photographs “Mount Recyclemore”, an artwork depicting the G7 leaders looking towards Carbis Bay, made from electronic waste by Joe Rush and Alex Wreckage, ahead of the G7 summit, at Hayle Towans in Cornwall, Britain, June 8, 2021. (Photo by Tom 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)