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)

Belarusian Sergei Selekh plays with his 6-month-old tamed wolves on the outskirts of the village of Gaina, 45 kilometers (28 miles) north of Belarus capital Minsk, Wednesday, December 31, 2014. Selekh owns a farmstead, where sheep, wolves and an ethnographic museum serve as entertainment for guests. (Photo by Sergei Grits/AP Photo)

Marieke van der Meer from the Netherlands works on her sculpture “Flora” at the sand sculpture show in Binz on Ruegen island, Germany, 09 March 2016. With the motto “Fascination Nature”, 50 sand artists have created oversized sculptures. The sculptors use 16,000 tons of special sand that is pressed into big blocks first and then formed. The 7th sand sculpture show on 5,600 square meters of exhibition ground opens on 12 March 2016. (Photo by Ens Buettner/EPA)

Gigi Hadid and Emily Ratajkowski celebrated the opening of the shopping centre by taking part in the evening's ribbon cutting ceremony in Mykonos, Greece on June 30, 2018. (Photo by Richard Young/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A girl smiles as her hair is blown by a strong wind in the Chinatown area in Yokohama, near Tokyo, Friday, January 27, 2017. (Photo by Koji Sasahara/AP Photo)

This picture taken on February 16, 2017 in Fangshan village in China's coastal province Fujians, shows a villager performing the “eating flowers” ritual. Villagers in eastern China have a unique way of washing away the taint of evil spirits – by bathing in a shower of scorching sparks. (Photo by Johannes Eisele/AFP Photo)

Pope Francis meets Spider-Man, who presents him with his mask, at the end of his weekly general audience with a limited number of faithful in the San Damaso Courtyard at the Vatican, Wednesday, June 23, 2021. The masked man works with sick children in hospitals. (Photo by Andrew Medichini/AP Photo)

A Tamil devotee lights an oil lamp at a religious ceremony during the Diwali or Deepavali festival at Ponnambalavaneshwaram Hindu temple in Colombo, Sri Lanka on October 24, 2022. (Photo by Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters)