A meat vendor counts money at a public market in Marikina, Philippines on Wednesday, April 24, 2024. (Photo by Aaron Favila/AP Photo)

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 Hindu holy man is reflected on a mirror as he prepares a bowl of vermillion powder for devotees near “Sangam”, the confluence of holy rivers of Ganges, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati, during the annual traditional fair of Magh Mela in Allahabad, in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, India, Tuesday, January 6, 2015. Hundreds of thousands of devout Hindus are expected to take holy dips at the confluence during the astronomically auspicious period of over 45 days celebrated as Magh Mela. (Photo by Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP Photo)

In this Monday, September 22, 2014 photo provided by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, a young cougar is released back into Utah's mountains by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources in an undisclosed site in central Utah. State wildlife officials received reports of the cougar roaming Sunday afternoon in a residential area of the city's eastern flank, a few miles from the base of the Wasatch Mountains. Authorities say cougars generally avoid humans but sometimes enter neighborhoods close to their mountain habitats. (Photo by Steve Gray/AP Photo/Utah Division of Wildlife Resources)

The two Pulis Quastie and Gin-Gin run in the snow in their garden in Lautertal, southern Germany, Thursday, January 5, 2017. (Photo by Michael Probst/AP Photo)

A young exhibitor arrives with her kitten on a lead at the National Cat Club show at Crystal Palace, London. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images). 2nd December 1931

A Hindu devotee ululates as she holds a banana tree trunk after taking a dip in the waters of the Ganges river during a ritual as part of the Durga Puja festival in Kolkata, India, September 27, 2017. (Photo by Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters)

A performer poses during celebrations after Rahul Gandhi, newly elected president of India's main opposition Congress party, took charge as the president during a ceremony outside the party's headquarters in New Delhi, India, December 16, 2017. (Photo by Altaf Hussain/Reuters)