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

Schwab's position of their clients researching and discovering ARPS on their own and just "self-serving" themselves to it through the "Schwab cafeteria" is just not true, as far as my case is concerned. They were actively promoted to me.