NEW YORK — E-Trade Financial Corp. today unveiled a global trading platform that makes it the first U.S. discount brokerage to give customers the ability to trade foreign-listed stocks online.

The pilot project, which begins with 1,000 E-Trade customers this week, allows them to buy, hold and sell stocks in Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan and Britain. The rollout is expected to take two months before all customers have access, and could one day expand to 42 international markets.

The launch unlocks thousands of stocks previously unavailable to online traders, and pressures top rivals Charles Schwab Corp. and TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. to make similar moves. It also comes as stock exchanges in Asia have bounced to unprecedented highs and far outpaced Western markets.

"Nobody can deny the world is becoming more interconnected, a more global community," said Jarrett Lilien, E-Trade's president and chief operating officer, in an interview. "I think our competition is going to have to follow. This is going to be a fundamental part of investing."

Previously, retail investors who wanted to buy foreign stocks that were not listed on U.S. exchanges as American Depositary Receipts had to call brokers and accept commission fees that topped $100. E-Trade will charge a $20 commission and also give customers the ability to move U.S. dollar accounts into foreign currencies.

The ability to keep the commission low is because E-Trade already has operations set up in 15 countries where customers have access to both local and U.S. stocks. This international network means E-Trade doesn't have to pay a third party to execute transactions because it is already doing so as a licensed broker in these countries.