Labourers load a three-wheeled vehicle onto the back of a van at the Mercato market in Addis Ababa October 9, 2015. Addis Ababa's “Mercato” – Italian for “market” – is reputedly the biggest open-air market in Africa, lying in the west of the capital. (Photo by Tiksa Negeri/Reuters)

A florist waits for customers at the Piedra Liza flower market in Lima April 29, 2015. The market sells flowers that come from all over Peru. Peru is home to more than 25,000 varieties of flowering plants like geraniums, carnations, roses, hydrangeas and jasmine, according to local media. (Photo by Mariana Bazo/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)

Crocodile meat parts stands on display on Huangsha Seafood Market in Guangzhou, Guandong Province, China, 20 January 2018. Tsukiji Market of China or Huangsha Seafood Market is biggest one in Southern China and one of the biggest in China, as there are literally hundreds of different varieties of fish and seafood scattered throughout the market. (Photo by Aleksandar Plavevski/EPA/EFE)

A potential bidder carefully examines pieces of Tuna in order to ascertain the quality and to estimate its price ahead of the Tuna auction at the Tsukiji fish market on February 28, 2012 in Tokyo, Japan. (Photo by Daniel Berehulak /Getty Images)

A pigeon stretches its wings in the Ka Faroshi bird market in Kabul on July 16, 2022. (Photo by Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP 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 man walks with a camel at Birqash camel market on January 27, 2012 in Cairo, Egypt. On the edge of the western dessert, thousands of camels are bought and sold every Friday at Brqash camel market, one of the biggest in the Middle East. (Photo by Jeff J. Mitchell/Getty Images)