Question:
What were the best investments during the depression of the 1930s (I
know about Gold mining stocks)?  What market sectors excelled, what
stocks increased, where did you want your money?  What businesses were
able to survive and thrive?  Please direct me to any and all resources
on the net, or books in print.  I'd like specific info on how much
stock prices increased, etc.  Thank you.

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Clarification of Question by dubsmaze-ga on 20 Mar 2005 16:47 PST

Please be as detailed and thorough as possible.

Dubsmaze --

Probably the best way to attack this is to go back to Standard &
Poor's sector data for the time.  However, it won't be a very fine
analysis as it would likely miss emerging industries.

I do know that electronics were hot investments as the 1930s wore on
-- particularly radio, which was state-of-the-art at the time.  Zenith
Radio emerged as a leading producer: its stock languished until 1935
when it went from the range of 2-2 5/8 at the beginning of the year to
13 1/2 at the end of the year.

This earlier Google Answer is a good reflection of the era and the
market growth being experienced for radio:
"Radio Set Ownership in NY City, 1938," (Omnivorous-GA, Jan. 22, 2003)
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=144290

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA

You need to keep survivor bias in mind. Especially with older indexes,
sector returns can be very overstated due to how they treat
bankrupcies.

I would do detailed research before taking Depression-era return data at face value.

Many items, including stocks, reached a historic low in the early 30s.
Some never recovered, but others doubled from their low before the end
of the thirties. We could be in a good buying position later this
year. I think large increases are unlikely from today's position.
Selling short would be smart before a crash later this year, but there
is a fair chance weak prosparity will continue several more years,
resulting in large losses for short sellers. So many things have
changed since the 30s, I don't think we can learn much, except that a
disasterous crash is possible.   Neil