Some common mistakes may include buying at a high price and being averse to suffering a loss, therefore holding the stock too long; putting too much weight in past historical information to guide him in making an investment decision; an inability to distinguish between many investment choices; and insensitivity to brokerage and management fees associated with trading individual stocks. Some experts also note the failure on the part of the individual investor to understand how difficult it is to “beat the market,” to do better than the returns of an underlying stock exchange, or to outperform a broad array of stocks such as an index.