Many hedge fund's run a factor neutral (market + other risk factors are hedged out of the portfolio) long short book. If done right (and thats the catch) there should be low correlation to S&P.

T-bills are the performance benchmark for hedge funds but not the risk benchmark (which is generally something riskier). This can sound counterintuitive as T-bills are a very low hurdle to clear. However, in a downturn scenario generally causes rates to fall, increasing t-bill return when the rest of the market goes down. In that case its a very difficult hurdle to clear.

Do you happen to have any resource that dives into this? This is really interesting would love to know more about how this works in details.

Not the OP, but _When Genius Failed_ by Lowenstein was a good book for understanding what happens in the asterisk ("if done right").

Thanks! I'll check it out.