People look at home-made armoured vehicle look-alikes on a street in Shenyang, Liaoning province, November 12, 2014. A man surnamed Zhang and his friends converted two cars into these two vehicles, for his son, and will be displaying them on show at a local park. The cannons on the vehicles can fire paintballs and smoke shells, local media cited Zhang as saying. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

People affected by Hurricane Maria bathe in water piped from a creek in the mountains, in Naranjito, Puerto Rico, Thursday, September 28, 2017. Residents of the area drive to the pipes to bathe because they were left without water supplies by the damage caused by Hurricane Maria. The pipe was set up by a neighbor who ran it from a creek in his property to the side of the road in order to help those left without water. (Photo by Ramon Espinosa/AP Photo)

A Berber Moroccan woman, wearing traditional outfits, parades during the “Miss Rose” beauty contest as part of the yearly Rose Festival on May 13, 2016 in the town of Kelaat Mgouna, at the foot of the High Atlas Mountains in Morocco. (Photo by Fadel Senna/AFP Photo)

Actress Kristen Schaal attends the 21st Annual Critics' Choice Awards at Barker Hangar on January 17, 2016 in Santa Monica, California. (Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images for The Critics' Choice Awards)

in Qayyarah, about 31 miles (50 km) south of Mosul, Iraq, Sunday, October 23, 2016.in Qayyarah, some 50 kilometers south of Mosul, Iraq, Sunday, Oct. 23, 2016. Islamic State fighters torched a sulfur plant south of Mosul, sending a cloud of toxic fumes into the air that mingled with oil wells the militants had lit on fire to create a smoke screen. (Photo by Marko Drobnjakovic/AP Photo)

Performers dressed as Ded Moroz, the equivalent of Santa Claus, and his granddaughter Snegurochka (Snow Maiden) take on shoe covers as they visit the Republican Scientific and Practical Centre of Pediatric Surgery in Minsk, Belarus, December 28, 2016. (Photo by Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters)

Green Bay Packers' Johnathan Calvin rides a bike to NFL football training camp on July 27, 2017, in Green Bay, Wis. (Photo by Morry Gash/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)