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)

People wearing bear furs perform during a festival of New Year ritual dances attended by hundreds in Comanesti, northern Romania, Wednesday, December 30 2015. In pre-Christian rural traditions, dancers wearing colored costumes or animal furs, toured from house to house in villages singing and dancing to ward off evil, in the present the tradition has moved to Romania's cities too, where dancers travel to perform the ritual for money. (Photo by Vadim Ghirda/AP Photo)

Camp dwellers pump water from a well at Malkohi refugee camp in Jimeta, Adamawa State, Nigeria on February 19, 2019, four days ahead of the country's General elections set for February 23 after a last-minute rescheduling. Malkohi is a camp for internal displaced who fled their homes as Boko Haram insurgents advanced across north-eastern Nigeria. From their homes on the outskirts of Yola, capital of presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar's home state Adamawa, Malkohi residents say they feel forgotten. (Photo by Luis Tato/AFP Photo)

In this Monday, March 18, 2019 photo, a street artist performs in Caracas, Venezuela. Venezuelans are facing a severe economic and political crisis as President Nicolas Maduro has remained in power despite heavy pressure from the United States and other countries arrayed against him, managing to retain the loyalty of most of Venezuela's military leaders. (Photo by Natacha Pisarenko/AP Photo)

Shamans perform a ritual of predictions for the upcoming US election with posters of presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton at the Agua Dulce beach in Lima on November 7, 2016. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump launched into the frenzied final day of their historic fight for the White House Monday, with blow-out rallies in the handful of swing states that will decide who leads the United States. (Photo by Ernesto Benavides/AFP Photo)

Maltese singer Emma Muscat attends the turquoise carpet of the 66th Eurovision Song Contest at Reggia di Venaria Reale on May 08, 2022 in Turin, Italy. (Photo by Stefania D'Alessandro/Getty Images)

Young migrants gesture during a day of solidarity organised by local organizations and resdients for asylum seekers at a makeshift camp outside the foreign office in Brussels, Belgium September 6, 2015. Over 150,000 people seeking to enter Europe have reached Hungary this year, most coming through the southern border with Serbia, and many apply for asylum but quickly try to leave for wealthier EU countries. (Photo by Yves Herman/Reuters)

A colorful drawing is seen on a wall in Baghdad, Iraq on October 24, 2021. A group of volunteer painters tries to give hope and joy to the Iraqi residents by painting colorful murals on the walls of the houses and streets of the city, tired of violance. Seve-member group named “Butterfly Effect” is busy in drawing paintings to depict life in Baghdad and its cultural heritage on the buildings (Photo by Murtadha Al-Sudani/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)