I have heard that Joe Patrick Kennedy (JFK's dad) and some other Irish American investors he allied with made a lot of money shorting the market and whatnot immediately before the crash.

Can anyone confirm this?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_P._Kennedy,_Sr.#Wall_Street_and_stock_market_investments

There were some people who benefited from the stock market. In the book "The Brain that Changes Itself" by Norman Doidge it explains how most people lost alot of money in the stock market crash. Contrary to this though were introverted stockbrokers who unlike their extroverted cousins, didnt over-extend their credit and instead invested conservatively which netted them a small profit while everyone else was losing money.

This happened with the recent 2008 crash as well with a small investment firm run by 2 introverted brokers (i use introverted and extroverted since the book describes them as such) made around 8 Billion dollars by investing conservatively and not panicking and selling like everyone else. However in the long run they lost 4 of that 8 Billion since they were too conservative and didnt invest in short term stocks.

Since the stock market crashes were caused by short sighted people concerned with immediate profits it makes sense that the people who are long sighted with patience would win in the end.

Jesse Livermore. You can read about him in Wikipedia . also, book called greatest trader of all time is all about him. Deep understanding of stock price movement and investor behavior based on his job of manually changing stock prices. Took other side of trade in 1907 and 1929 and sold shares short when he sensed the ×÷&# about to hit the fan!

I don't think ANYONE profited, but I think a lot of people were largely unaffected, not by the depression but by the crash. If you didn't buy stocks, clearly the crash wouldn't affect you, but following the fluctuating prices of the depression, dust bowl and et cetera, all Americans suffered.