The last two weeks have been horrific for global equity markets. Last week was the worst week for the S&P since December 2008. The final tally for the index was a loss of 7.19 percent.

With this selling, the sentiment toward the market has changed course dramatically.

The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) is commonly referred to as the “fear gauge” of the market and it has tripled since the beginning of July. The index jumped from a low of 15.12 on July 1 to a high of 46.90 yesterday.

This isn’t the only indicator of fear in the market either. Last Thursday, there was so much money pouring into U.S. Treasurys that at one point the one-year Treasury note actually had a negative yield.

Think about that, investors are so concerned that they were paying the U.S. Treasury to borrow from them.

That is the most extreme case of fear I can ever recall.

One axiom about investing is that you should be a buyer when there is blood in the street. With the fear and pessimism running rampant while the earnings of many companies are performing very well, we could be seeing an incredible buying opportunity.

If you are a long-term investor, I would consider dipping my toe in the water at this point.