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 Russian peacekeeper shouts “No pictures!” at a checkpoint outside the city of Stepanakert on November 13, 2020, during a ceasefire in the military conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Russian began deploying 2,000 peacekeepers to Nagorno-Karabakh on November 10 after Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed a peace deal to end weeks of fierce fighting over the disputed region. (Photo by Alexander Nemenov/AFP Photo)

A serviceman of Russia's Emergencies Ministry wearing protective gear disinfects Moscow's Leningradsky railway station on May 19, 2020, amid the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP Photo)

Palestinians perform to amuse people with a wire which ignites sparks during the Islamic holy fasting month of Ramadan, on April 03, 2023 in Gaza City, Gaza. (Photo by Mustafa Hassona/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

School teachers and staff members take part during an active shooter training at James I. O'Neill High School in Highland Falls, New York, U.S., December 12, 2017. (Photo by Eduardo Munoz/Reuters)

“Honorable Mention”. An Indian rhinoceros, far from home and stuck inside with late-winter blues at the Toronto zoo. Photo location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo and caption by Stephen De Lisle/National Geographic Photo Contest)

A Humboldt penguin stands on weighing scales whilst being photographed by members of the press during a photocall at the annual weigh-in at London Zoo in London, Britain, 24 August 2016. Every animal that is in the zoo is weighed and measured and the statistics recorded so the data can be shared with zoos across the world. (Photo by Hannah McKay/EPA)

Revelers, covered in coloured powder, celebrate, during a Holi Run Festival in Madrid, Spain, Sunday, April 12, 2015. Thousands of revelers took part in the festival that includes a mini marathon. The festivals are fashioned after the Hindu spring festival Holi, which is mainly celebrated in the north and east of India. (Photo by Andres Kudacki/AP Photo)