In April of this year, as Chinese stock markets rocketed to new all-time highs and the country's speculators joined online brokerage firms by the millions, we learned that everyone, from farmers to banana stand workers, was joining the fray. It was different this time, of course, because infinite growth was guaranteed by the government, so there was no risk, only profit.

It was then that we shared the following picture of the modern-day shoeshine boy, noting at the time that it was the only thing you needed to see to know it was time to get out of stocks:

Markets continued to rise over the following weeks and warnings from alternative financial media analysts went unheeded. In fact, so convinced were the Chinese that the stock market was the new road to riches that over 10 million people opened trading accounts in the first half of 2015.

But their rags-to-riches success stories were not to be.

Within three months we have seen the reality behind the meteoric rise in global equities as prices collapse under the weight of heavy leverage and insane speculation.