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)

Ladies enjoyed themselves last night – while keeping safe with their face masks on in Liverpool, United Kingdom on Saturday, December 5, 2020, after coronavirus restrictions were eased following the end of the second national lockdown. (Photo by London News Pictures)

French-Argentine actress Berenice Bejo poses during a photocall for “Final Cut (Coupez !)” at the 75th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 18, 2022. (Photo by Loic Venance/AFP Photo)

Spectators, young and old and of all colors of the rainbow, lined the canals in the Dutch capital to watch the colorful spectacle of the Pride Canal Parade return for the 25th edition after the last two events were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Saturday, August 6, 2022. (Photo by Peter Dejong/AP Photo)

In this November 27, 2019 photo, Wadlande Pierre, right, talks on her mobile phone as she helps her mother, Vanlancia Julien, center, at their fruit and vegetable stand on a sidewalk in Delmas, a district of in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Pierre, 23, said she temporarily moved in with her aunt in the southwest town of Les Cayes to escape the violent protests in Port-au-Prince. However, she had to move back to the capital because there was no gas, power or water in Les Cayes, and food was becoming scarce. (Photo by Dieu Nalio Chery/AP Photo)

Jockey student Mariangelys Almedina (Front) balances on a steel drum suspended in the air by a series of springs to simulate riding a horse as Instructor Willie Lozano looks on at the Vocational Equestrian Agustín Mercado Reverón School located in the Hipódromo Camarero on November 17, 2022 in Canovanas, Puerto Rico. The Vocational Equestrian Agustín Mercado Reverón School has produced some of the best jockeys in the world but also prepares students for a wide range of equestrian jobs on a tuition-free basis. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)

A Saudi woman shops for Ramadan decorations to mark the beginning of the Holy Month of Ramadan in a local market in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on March 22, 2023. (Photo by Ahmed Yosri/Reuters)

An empty beer bottle stands in front of the buildings of the banking district in Frankfurt, Germany, Friday, May 21, 2021. All people gathering on the square for drinks and food left when the police started checking if they are abiding by the coronavirus restrictions. (Photo by Michael Probst/AP Photo)