A man stands next to a barricade blocking a road during a protest calling on the government to help ease the economic effects of an harmful algal bloom that had affected their livelihoods at Chiloe island in Chile, May 6, 2016. (Photo by Pablo Sanhueza/Reuters)

Crown line handler Bobby Marie controls “Chain Gang” as the balloon is inflated during the 43nd Annual Helen to the Atlantic Balloon Race and Festival, in Helen, Georgia, USA, 04 June 2016. The race is the oldest balloon event in the southern USA and United States' only long-distance hot air balloon race, according to the organizers. (Photo by Erik S. Lesser/EPA)

Rebel fighters fire towards positions of regime forces in Ramussa on the southwestern edges of Syria's northern city of Aleppo on August 6, 2016. Syrian rebels said they have broken a three-week government siege of second city Aleppo, turning the tables on Russian-backed regime forces who are now on the defensive. (Photo by Fadi Al-Halabi/AFP Photo)

Jennifer Oeser of Germany competes in the Women's Heptathlon Long Jump on Day 8 of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium on August 13, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photo by Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)

Pakistani students look out from a vehicle on their way to school near the Army Public School which was targeted by Taliban militants last year, in Peshawar, Pakistan, Monday, January 12, 2015. (Photo by B.K. Bangash/AP Photo)

A picture taken on March 9, 2017, shows a boy playing with a cat next to a 1948 Buick parked outside the home of Mohammad Mohiedine Anis in the formerly rebel-held al-Shaar neighbourhood. (Photo by Joseph Eid/AFP Photo)

In this April 4, 2017 photo keeper German Alonso straps a leg prothesis to on the left leg of secretarybird Soeckchen (Sagittarius seprentarius) at the bird park in Walsrode, northern Germany. The prothesis was made in a 3D-printer after his left leg was amputated. (Photo by Philipp Schulze/DPA via AP 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)