Is it illegal to use a friend’s account to trade

You have to ascertain how much you trust that friend. When you pass the money to your friend (unless there is an IOU or something credible enough) you have given up control and the money now belongs to your friend. So he is free to do anything (legally) he wants with his money, including not returning you the money.

Insider trading happens if someone gets to know some non-public information and places a trade in advance to gain an unfair advantage. It is independent of who owns the brokerage account. Your friend can be guilty of insider trading too if he buys and trades on insider info. As long as you or your parents or your friend are trading on publicly known information, it is ok.

I believe you should be able to trade/invest once you are of age. The only limitation is that you'll have to get your parents to declare and get approval prior to your every trade (buy or sell).​​​

If you are asking whether its illegal, technically it is. Because for anyone to execute any trade for others, they are required to hold a CMFAS license.

For your case, you are using your friends "identity" and so would that amount to fraud? If you are the regulator, would you think it is a fraud? I would say it is not allowed due to Anti-Money Laundering and Know Your Customer.

For insider trading, as long as they can prove there is the intention, it does not matter whose name is used.

You can read https://www.straitstimes.com/business/companies... for Blumont case where many are asked to execute the trades to manipulate the market for case reference, even if the intention is different, the way it is executed is the same.