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)

South Korean university students prepare for an establishment ceremony of the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) for female cadets at Sookmyung Women's University on December 10, 2010 in Seoul, South Korea. The South Korean defense ministry has agreed to admit women into it's college-based Reserve Officers' Training Program for the first time since the program began in 1963. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

Lutricia Bock of Germany falls down as she performs during the ladies short program at the ISU European Figure Skating Championship in Bratislava, Slovakia, January 27, 2016. (Photo by David W. Cerny/Reuters)

Martin Lacey Jr. with a lion during the premiere of the Circus Krone program “Circus der Preistraeger” at Circus Krone on February 2, 2016 in Munich, Germany. (Photo by Hannes Magerstaedt/Getty Images)

Artist C. K. Wilde creates intricate collage compositions using pieces of paper currency from all over the world. His collages have referenced subjects ranging from space exploration, to mythology, religion, slavery, ecology, the history of warfare, the history of money, and art history. Photo: “Great Crash”. (Photo by C. K. Wilde)

Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker perform during the short dance program at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Greensboro, N.C., Friday, Jan. 23, 2015. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)

Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov of Russia perform during Gala exhibition skating program of the ISU European Figure Skating Championships in Graz, Austria, 26 January 2020. (Photo by Tatyana Zenkovich/EPA/EFE)

Isabeau Levito, of the United States, reacts at the end of her short program at the world figure skating championships in Montreal, Wednesday, March 20, 2024. (Photo by Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press via AP Photo)