I know you're showing a rough example, but others might want to throw a `-d` in there so that folders don't get expanded. And put `$@` in quotations so spaced file names don't get interpreted as separate arguments.

i.e.:

    ls -ltd "$@" | head

edit: `-d` may be a bad choice. It also results in directories being listed first on my system, even with `-t` passed.

edit 2: That was an alias I had setup. Carry on with the `-d`.