Easing Back Into This Market

I'll sing my song to the wide open spaces
I'll sing my heart out to the infinite sea
I'll sing my visions to the sky-high mountains
I'll sing my song to the free, to the free.
-- The Who

Last night on "Kudlow & Company," we unveiled the "Cody Cam" and showed a couple of segments in which I was out on the street talking to people about how they access music these days. (Holy cow, what a thrill it was!) I've probably talked to no less than 1,000 people about this topic in the last two years, and yesterday's anecdotal evidence was simply another affirmation of what I've been saying as a fact for more than two years: iTunes and iPods are the de facto standard for digital music consumption and listening. And digital music consumption is in the early stages of a major secular growth cycle that will be measured in years -- or decades.

I've owned Apple (AAPL - commentary - Cramer's Take) since it was at $7, in large part because I bought into the vision that Apple would own distribution on the Net. Apple's dominance and huge growth in music is not over, not by a long shot. In fact, it's still likely the first or second inning of this secular growth phase.

As we closed that part of the show, which included lively debates with RealMoney's own Barry Ritholtz and Keith Wirtz from Fifth Third Asset Management about the future of this economy and market, Larry asked each of us whether we would be a buyer of this market in the morning.

Bear Cultist Barry was in the same camp that I've been saying most of the permabears are in -- not short and looking to buy for a bounce since apparently the economy's doing great even though they're still sure it's going to collapse any day now.

Keith said he's basically in the camp I've been in for the last month of liking the economy and market for the intermediate-/long-term, but not wanting to build those positions yet.

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Cody Willard is the manager of a hedge fund, author of The Telecom Connection, a newsletter published by TheStreet.com and a contributor to the Financial Times and VON Magazine. He is also a regular guest on CNBC's Kudlow & Company and an adjunct professor at Seton Hall.

He earned a bachelor's degree in economics at the University of New Mexico. Willard appreciates your feedback -- click here to send him an email.