By David Galland in Casey's Daily Dispatch:

The skyrocketing interest of U.S. investors in gold, silver, oil, and other tangible commodities, and the falling dollar that makes international assets even more appealing, should translate into an increasing number of U.S. brokerage firms trying to get in on the action by building global trading platforms for their customers. Scottrade has already done so, as has E-Trade, though both offerings are still relatively rudimentary.

At first glance, it appears that the new international trading service announced by Fidelity Investments today takes things to a new and improved level, opening the door for their millions of customers to join the worldwide party.

In addition to allowing stock trades in 12 foreign markets and eight currencies, the new Fidelity platform also allows you to decide whether you want to settle your foreign trades in U.S. dollars or the local currencies.

It is, of course, the Canadian market that interests us the most – as that is where many of the best resource companies are found. The physical proximity of the Canadian market, its homogeneity with the U.S., and its heavy weighting on gold and energy companies will make it especially attractive to the new wave of U.S. resource investors – especially now that they have increasingly more efficient and easy ways to trade the shares.

Of course, the size of the Canadian market vis-à-vis potential U.S. investment demand could create a situation akin to trying to force Niagara Falls through a garden hose. The total value of the Canadian equities market, where many of our favorite resource companies are to be found, is estimated to be about $2 trillion. By comparison, the U.S. equities markets ring in somewhere around $18 trillion.

In making the announcement of its new trading service, Fidelity reaffirmed its recommendation that clients should have 30% of their portfolios invested in foreign issues. Fidelity currently has on the order of $2.9 trillion under management -- a lot of smackers, to use an industry term.

If this trend toward buying international issues remains in motion, as we very much expect it to, it can only help to improve liquidity and to push up the values of the resource companies subscribers to the International Speculator are already well positioned in.

Crux note: Casey's International Speculator is highly recommended for those interested in profiting in small resource stocks. You can learn more about a subscription here.

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