The Man Behind a Tiny Toronto Hedge Fund That Revived Meme Mania

By Wall Street standards it’s been a whopping good month for Canadian hedge fund manager Eric Jackson, whose EMJ Capital Ltd. bought shares of Opendoor Technologies Inc. at around 70 cents and watched them soar more than 250%.

But for 53-year-old Jackson it’s a painful reminder that not everyone wants to come along for a volatile ride, even when you’re winning. One of his investors asked for their money back because of the Opendoor investment. Turns out they didn’t want to be in a “meme stock.”

Eric Jackson, founder and president of EMJ Capital.

Source: Galit Rodan/Bloomberg

Then his directors started asking questions about the fund’s holdings, which feature ...