Auction rate preferred securities is the largest fraud ever perpetuated by Wall Street on investors. It dwarfs all frauds in history, including Madoff. There are three takeaways from this fraud.
First, you cannot believe anything -- absolutely anything -- that anyone on Wall Street tells you.
Second, Wall Street is only interested in the fees it can extract from you.
Third, Wall Street (i.e. its representatives) has absolutely no interest in whether the item(s) it sells you has any long-term (or short-term) value whatsoever. - Harry Newton

Most brokers' position of their clients researching and discovering ARPS on their own and just "self-serving" themselves to it through a "fixed-income cafeteria" is just not true, as far as thousands are concerned. They were actively promoted by brokers and banks and dumped on their retail client base in late 2007, just before the credit crash.
Advent Claymore is one of the remaining pond scum CEF's who have not redeemed the ARPS yet.