OM Investments, Houston, TX (2026)

08/24/2026

Pivotal Research 2026!: America Is Falling Out of Love With Pizza by The Wall Street Journal

"Restaurant chains explore strategy changes as sales slow for delivery mainstay

Once the second-most common U.S. restaurant type, are now outnumbered by shops and food eateries, according to industry data. Sales growth at pizza restaurants has lagged behind the broader fast-food market for years, and the outlook ahead isn’t much brighter.

Today, shops are engaged in price wars with one another and other kinds of . apps have put a wider range of cuisines and options at ’ fingertips. And $20 a pie for a family can feel expensive compared with $5 fast-food deals, frozen or eating a home-cooked .

Pizza’s dominance in restaurant fare is declining, however. Among different , it ranked sixth in terms of U.S. sales in 2024 among chains, down from second place during the 1990s, Technomic, Inc. said.

The number of pizza restaurants in the U.S. hit a record high in 2019 and has declined since then, figures from the market-research firm Datassential show.

As growth in pizza sales stagnates, between has intensified. Sales at Domino's Pizza have grown as the has rolled out such as a $9.99 offering for a large pie with toppings.

At Pizza Hut, sales at locations open at least a year have declined for eight straight quarters. Moreover, it has hundreds of dine-in locations, which occupy larger footprints, are more costly to operate, and account for a shrinking slice of where people eat .

Papa Johns Pizza has opened the door to selling the , though said they are focused on a broad turnaround strategy. The chain has spent the past year assessing its business, with executives looking to change everything from its strategy to how it builds its .

are becoming choosier, and Papa John’s has to step up its menu offerings and , said Thanawala, the chain’s CFO. That means offering more side dishes at good prices, including ones baked in the chain’s ovens.

The chain is closing some North American restaurants to focus on boosting at locations the believes are primed for growth. Other locations just need a face-lift, said." - Heather Haddon, WSJ

Read the full article for more:

https://www.wsj.com/business/hospitality/pizza-sales-popularity-down-98e8b064

#1

Restaurant chains are exploring strategy changes as sales slow for the food-delivery mainstay.

08/13/2026

These National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) Foundation awards are a testament to the NAPFA recipients helping more people reach and Financial Literacy by leveraging their .

NAPFA 2025 Award Recipients: Steve Oniya, CFP®, ChFC®, CPWA®, MBA Elijah Essa, CFP® and Brooklyn Brock, CFP®, CEPA®, ChFC®, CKA®

"NAPFA is thrilled to honor a distinguished group of professionals and firms with its prestigious 2025 awards. These individuals and organizations exemplify the standards of excellence and commitment that NAPFA promotes in the field of Fee-Only ."

Read their bios and watch for more below.

https://www.napfa.org/2025-award-recipients

Twice Measure The American College of Financial Services Steve Oniya

The National Association of Personal Financial Advisors is the leading association of fee-only financial advisors. Visit us today to find an advisor near you.

08/06/2026

Pivotal Research 2026!: Everyday Traders Go From Fringe Players to Dominant Market Force by The Wall Street Journal

"Individual investors poured a record amount of money into stocks and exchange-traded in 2025, according to analysts at JPMorganChase, topping levels seen during the -stock mania four years ago. The buying spree wasn’t limited to equities: retail investors’ share of option trading volumes is also near records, and they funneled more into the leading gold than in the past five years combined.

The billions that these plowed into the markets this year helped power the S&P 500 through every selloff and toward a 16% gain in 2025, the index’s third back-to-back year of double-digit gains.

Now, retail make up a growing slice of the overall market. They accounted for 22% of industry volume in October, according to data from Citadel Securities, the highest level since February 2021.

"The thesis was that during the pandemic all these people would get involved and then leave,” said Tom Bruni, CMT, CPA, head of and retail-investor insights at the social platform Stocktwits. “Instead, we’ve seen them stick around…and they’ve matured a lot.”

Individual investors’ impulse to pile into stocks when prices slide played a major role in the market’s rapid recovery from April’s tariff turmoil, when President Trump unveiled an aggressive plan for reciprocal tariffs that sent tumbling. Retail traders plowed a record net $40 billion into stocks that month, JP Morgan Chase analysts reported, helping to kick-start the rebound.

That mirrored a similar response after the Covid-19 outbreak in March 2020—another moment in which individual investors stepped in to buy the dip.

“You could argue this is the second time that retail has bailed out the market,” said Steve Quirk, chief brokerage officer at Robinhood. “When there’s a crisis, it’s retail [ ] to the rescue—which is the polar opposite of what it used to be.”

But as more tie their net worth to stocks, a could have a further-reaching impact. It might also stall the movement that has taken shape over the past half-decade.

“I wouldn’t underestimate sensitivities to performance,” Quirk said. If were to fall for a couple of years straight, for example, “we might see behavioral change there,” he said.

“It’s going to move at this pace or a little faster,” said James Kostulias, head of trading services at Charles Schwab. “People are becoming more and more comfortable managing their .” - Hannah Erin Lang, WSJ

Read the full article for more:

https://www.wsj.com/finance/stocks/everyday-traders-go-from-fringe-players-to-dominant-market-force-51edb01b

How have you approached the same situation?

We're not sure the will last. We invite you to add what you're seeing.

What's your stories and experiences?

Forget the GameStop frenzy four years ago—2025 was the year of the retail trader, with individual investors flexing their muscles and exerting more power over markets than ever before.

07/31/2026

These are some fascinating pieces and short recaps on and Hedge .

#1

Emerging market funds can offer exposure to faster-growing regions and global economic trends that differ from those in developed markets.

07/23/2026

Who knew so many other people were curious about hedge funds too!

A hedge fund invests from a pool of money from investors to make a profit. Discover how a hedge fund works and which strategies are used.

07/18/2026

Pivotal Research 2025: Customers Are Madder Than Ever By The Wall Street Journal (Part 2)

"Many now are turning to to field complaints, steering to online before they can reach human staff. Companies say the helps solve simple problems faster and lets representatives spend more time working on more complex issues. But most National Rage Survey respondents gave chatbots ambiguous or modestly unfavorable ratings as tools for .

It also found that consumers who identified as upper class are nearly twice as satisfied with resolution outcomes compared with those in the middle, working, and lower classes. More companies in recent years have taken to stratifying their , providing those who pay for higher-tier memberships with special phone lines and direct access to support.

But the overall trend is downward. Seven percent of the 469 brands Forrester studied improved their score by a statistically significant amount from 2024 in the U.S. and , compared with 25% whose scores fell." - Katie Deighton, WSJ

Read the full article for more:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/american-customers-are-madder-than-ever-b9de4b54

It has never been easier to buy stuff. But dealing with product and service problems has never felt so difficult, consumers say.

07/11/2026

Pivotal Research 2025: Customers Are Madder Than Ever

By The Wall Street Journal (Part 1)

"It has never been easier to buy stuff. But dealing with product and problems has never felt so difficult, consumers say.

Seventy-seven percent of customers reported experiencing a product or service problem in the previous 12 months, according to the latest National Customer Rage Survey, conducted in February.

That was a new high, surpassing 74% in 2023, when the study was last conducted, and 66% during the height of the pandemic in 2020. Only 32% told researchers they had experienced a problem in 1976, when a similar version of the study was first conducted.

The and Communications Consumer Insights survey showed seventy-one percent of U.S. and respondents think most companies need to improve their customer experience, a record high, according to the seventh annual study conducted in August and published in November by fintech company Broadridge Financial Solutions.

And the research and advisory firm Forrester in June found that U.S. and Canadian consumer perceptions of the customer experience have dropped for a fourth consecutive year, with brands’ average score reaching a record low of 68.3 out of 100. The index reflects ’ attitudes across six metrics, including how easy a brand is to deal with and how interacting with the feels.

People are partly upset over their feeling that it is much easier to buy products and services than it is to get help when there is a problem, according to Scott Broetzmann, the president and chief executive of Customer Care Measurement & Consulting, which conducts the National Customer Rage Survey with the W.P. Carey School Of Business @ Arizona State University.

Sixty-eight percent said their recent experiences with complaining to companies required high or very high amounts of effort, up from 65% in 2023, the study found. Respondents’ top two frustrations were long to endure before speaking with a representative and trying to figure out how to contact a .

Retailers from Saks Fifth Avenue to Abercrombie & Fitch have also been fighting a rising tide of returns with measures like return fees and shorter return windows, annoying some ." -Katie Deighton, WSJ

Read the full article for more:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/american-customers-are-madder-than-ever-b9de4b54

It has never been easier to buy stuff. But dealing with product and service problems has never felt so difficult, consumers say.

07/02/2026

🌋🍉🎢 Happy Summer Holidays & Healthy . We're attaining healthy personal finances! As a thank-you to our longtime newsletter subscribers and new followers, we will explore current hot topics and Finance.

Here is a quote from this dense and incomplete edition (there is so much to cover!).

"Saving and diversely investing in advance, long term, is preparation for life's inevitable ability to shock the socks off you." - Steve Oniya

Here are hot topics we will touch on such as:

Diversified Long-Term Investing

Saving to Make Money

Emotional Roller Coasters

When Waiting Works in Your Favor

Consumer or Owner & Mindset

with Inflation and TJ Maxx?

How Bad is vs.

Non-financial or Virtuous Circle!

Bad

When Benefits You

Protecting Your Job/Income From

9 -Reducing Truths About Money

and more

Check it out & enjoy on LinkedIn or our Website!

https://lnkd.in/ghNdkEdg

or our website

https://www.ominvested.com/blog/%F0%9F%8C%8B%F0%9F%8D%89%F0%9F%8E%A2-happy-summer-holidays-healthy-finance

African Houston Business Directory

Happy upcoming holidays and special time with loved ones! Whether you're celebrating Summer Solstice/National Daylight Appreciation Day, LGBTQ Pride Month, African American Music Appreciation Month, National Rose Month, Fresh Fruit and Vegetables Month, Independence Day, Tanabata, National Park and

06/25/2026

Pivotal Research 2025: Memecoins Were Hot a Year Ago. Many Have Crashed Over 90%. By The Wall Street Journal

"Remember memecoins? The novelty digital tokens enjoyed a frenzy of popularity last winter, and President got in on the action, endorsing an official $TRUMP coin ahead of his inauguration in January.

Now the sector is a wasteland. The price of $TRUMP is down 93% from its peak, while the total market cap of all has collapsed to less than $42 billion, from $150.6 billion just over a year ago, according to data provider CoinGecko.

LIBRA, a briefly endorsed by Argentine President Javier in February, has plummeted 99% from its all-time high, prompting aggrieved to file lawsuits against the coin’s .

Memecoins were never intended as a serious . The typically don’t have any economic purpose and are instead designed to capture buzz around celebrities or internet . Many prominent figures in the industry regard them as an embarrassing sideshow.

also have a reputation for . Bad actors engage in schemes such as rug pulls, in which a token’s creators sell their holdings as soon as the price peaks, cashing in for personal gain at the expense of other .

Last year’s memecoin surge saw an “abundance of ,” CoinGecko said this month." - Alexander Osipovich, WSJ

Read the full article for more

https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/stock-market-today-dow-sp-500-nasdaq-12-31-2025/card/memecoins-were-hot-a-year-ago-many-have-crashed-more-than-90--hfsWlkxbWb747jY8ROOZ

and/or with often don't effectively mix.

#1

Remember memecoins? The novelty digital tokens enjoyed a frenzy of popularity last winter, and President Trump got in on the action, endorsing an official $TRUMP coin ahead of his inauguration in January. Now the sector is a wasteland. The price of $TRUMP is down 93% from its peak, while the to

06/18/2026

Pivotal Research 2025: America Loves a $13 Lunch Bowl. Don’t Bet Against It.

by The Wall Street Journal

"It has been a rough stretch for the makers of -but fast—lunch bowls. After years of riding a wave, they’ve suddenly found themselves squeezed between rising costs and a jittery consumer.

Younger consumers are looking for places to trim Chipotle Mexican Grill, CAVA and sweetgreen SG -6.89%decrease; down pointing triangle have all reported softer results in recent quarters. Their show the damage: So far this year, Chipotle is down around 44%, Cava about 56% and Sweetgreen about 80%.

Companies point to the same culprits: student-loan payments, higher rents and a softer job market that are pushing younger consumers back into their kitchens. Roughly 75% of the customers for these chains are or , notes David Henkes of Technomic.

The bowl occupies a rare pricing sweet spot: genuinely fresh for only a couple of dollars more than —and still far less than a sit-down entree once you add tax and tip. Yes, you can get a burger, fries and a soda for $10.79. But is that really a better deal than a $13 bowl of fresh greens, whole-grain rice, grilled chicken, tahini and pickled cabbage? More seem to think not.

In 2008, fast casual made up just 6% of the restaurant industry. Today it’s about 15% of the market, according to Technomic.

Cava can’t just roll out an $8.99 bowl without undermining its .

What it can do is keep raising prices at a slower pace than inflation. Since 2019, Cava has lifted prices less than 17%—about half the 34% industry average and well below the 27% rise in , Schulman says.

The per-person average—which can include drinks and sides—is just over $14, but in many markets bowls run $10.65 to $12.95.

Cava may never be the cheapest in town, but both its bowls and stock offer solid ." - David Wainer, WSJ

Read full article here:

https://www.wsj.com/business/hospitality/america-loves-a-13-lunch-bowl-dont-bet-against-it-5992f80e?

This is an interesting piece on and the battle of , prices, taste and convenience among other things.

Consumers may be struggling, but they still want the fresh and fast offerings from restaurants like Cava and Chipotle.

OM Investments

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