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 vendor drinks water as she waits for customers at a roadside flower market in Ahmedabad, India, February 8, 2017. (Photo by Amit Dave/Reuters)

In this photo illustration a young girl licks a lollipop in which a scorpion is suspended on May 7, 2014 in Berlin, Germany. An increasing numbers of advocates worldwide are promoting insects as a viable source of food for humans, citing the high protein value, abundance and low cost. (Photo Illustration by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Soldiers stop to buy goods at the main market of Diffa, Niger, March 23, 2015. Diffa is where Nigerien and Chadian troops fighting insurgent group Boko Haram are based at. (Photo by Joe Penney/Reuters)

A woman walks with a squirrel on her shoulder at Maeklong market at the outskirts of Bangkok, Thailand September 20, 2016. (Photo by Jorge Silva/Reuters)

Customers crowd around a vibrant mango market in Bangladesh in the second decade of May 2024. Farmers transport the tropical fruit by bicycle, with each cyclist carrying about 200kg. (Photo by Bipul Ahmed/Solent News)

A woman looks at head of bluefin tuna on display in front of a store at Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo, Monday, February 19, 2018. The large bluefin are particularly valuable in Japan, where they are considered a premium sushi and sashimi fish. A single fish sold for more than $1.75 million at an auction in Japan in 2013. (Photo by Koji Sasahara/AP Photo)

A group of women laugh at artwork referencing U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump made by the artist Hanksy and being sold at a temporary store in New York, U.S., June 4, 2016. (Photo by Lucas Jackson/Reuters)