Everett CollectionNo matter what I say, no matter how hard I beg, don’t let me talk to my broker!With the new year underway, there are many investment options attempting to entice retirement investors. Like Odysseus of old, lash yourself to the mast, put beeswax in your ears and ignore the alluring songs of these 10 sirens. 1. Sector funds — Why not overweight your portfolio to market sectors that will outperform in 2015? Unfortunately, recommendations to overweight certain market sectors are just educated guesses and I've yet to discover the difference between educated and uneducated guesses. A sector rotation strategy is a form of market timing that increases portfolio risk. It's wiser to have a passive, indexed strategy and own all market sectors. 2. Individual stocks — Individual stocks are pitched to investors as unique, moneymaking opportunities without acknowledging the unnecessary, additional risks of owning individual stocks or that no stock is likely to outperform its asset class over the long term. A total stock market index fund cannot go to zero. The same cannot be said of any stock. 3. A g u ru — In 1998, CXO Advisors began publishing the accuracy of high profile stock market forecasters to see if they provided reliable market timing guidance. By year-end 2005, the gurus' cumulative accuracy stabilized at 48% — slightly less than coin flipping. After grading more than 6,500 forecasts, CXO stopped collecting data at the end of 2012. Steve LeCompte of CXO explained, "The accuracy rate has been very stable for years, so I strongly doubt continuing to collect forecasts would materially affect findings." 4. Alternative mutual funds — The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (Finra) is a nonprofit organization authorized by Congress to protect investors through effective regulation of the securities industry. In January it issued a noticelisting this year's "areas of focus.” One investment on FINRA's radar screen is "alt funds" or "liquid alts" which are marketed to investors as a way to invest in sophisticated, hedge fund like strategies. These funds promise to reduce volatility, increase diversification, and produce returns noncorrelated to long-only stock and bond funds. Finra is concerned that investors and brokers don't understand the strategies fund managers are using, how the funds will respond to various market conditions or their high fee structure. 5. Variable annuity — Variable annuities are like movies — a few are good, most are lousy. Avoid them if you haven't maximized contributions to your 401(k)s and IRAs. There's a 10% tax penalty for withdrawals before age 59½. Gains are taxed as ordinary income, not long-term capital gains. There is no stepped-up cost basis for your heirs. One of FINRA's product-focused concerns this year is sales practices related to variable annuities. Specifically, "the compensation structures that may improperly incent the sale of variable annuities, the suitability of recommendations, statements made by registered representatives about these products and the adequacy of disclosures made about material features of variable annuities." If you're considering a variable annuity, get a second opinion from a financial professional who has no stake in the transaction. 6. Single-country funds — Investors are attracted to past performance like moths to a flame. Every year some country's stock market handily outperforms the U.S. stock market. (Argentina's stock market was up 54% last year.) Your portfolio should own an international stock index fund. But just like betting on individual stocks or market sectors, betting on one country's stock market increases risk without guaranteeing better long-term performance. 7. Wrap accounts — Wall Street thrives on trading so it's no surprise that one of FINRA's "areas of focus" this year will be excessive trading in client accounts. Brokerage firms try to mimic fee-only financial advisers by replacing commissions with an annual account fee based on the size of the account. Wrap accounts are inappropriate for clients who trade infrequently and don't need commission relief. They don't eliminate mutual fund management expenses or 12b-1 fees, so investors often pay higher all-up fees in these accounts than they realize. 8. Nondeductible 401(k) contributions — If you max out your pretax contributions, don't add post-tax money to your 401(k). Open a brokerage account and take advantage of penalty free withdrawals, long-term capital gains taxation and the option to do tax loss harvesting. As a bonus, your heirs will receive a stepped up, date of death cost basis when inheriting the account. 9. Inverse funds — The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index has SPX, +0.26% produced positive returns in 39 of the past 50 years. Therefore, a bet against a rising stock market is unlikely to enhance long-term returns. 10. Leveraged funds — If shorting the market is a foolish long-term strategy, is investing in funds that return two or three times the upside of the market a winning strategy? Not really. 2x and 3x funds are designed to do so only on a daily basis. If held for the long term, these funds will provide a multiple of the market's volatility but not an equivalent multiple of its return ... Ouch.Here's a linkto a Finra alert on these funds. By safely ignoring these 10 “investment” options, you'll simplify your investing life and not miss a thing. marketwatch