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A hedge from this theory would be to buy stocks just outside the SP 500? Something like TSLA. That would be a crazy situation, where the SP 500 is crashing and the rest of the market it taking off

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I don't know about that. If a general financial crisis is the concern, stocks outside the S&P 500 would not be spared.

What I got from this interview was just a reminder that it makes sense not to get caught up in enthusiasm for a certain asset. And investors (including me) are certainly enthusiastic about the S&P 500 index fund.

A simpler option is to buy options on the index. You can butterfly the index with calls and puts around your minimum return / maximum loss tolerance.

Which requires a margin trading account, a non-trivial amount of trading experience, a non-trivial amount of capital, constant management, and is highly leveraged. The risk profile is totally different.

This is the right answer, even if it's a fucking terrible idea.

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