The second Dirichlet coefficient starts out negative

Abstract

Classical modular forms of small weight and low level are likely to have a negative second Fourier coefficient. Similarly, the labeling scheme for elliptic curves tends to give smaller labels to the higher-rank curves. These observations are easily made when browsing the L-functions and Modular Forms Database, available at http://www.LMFDB.org/. An explanation lies in the L-functions associated to these objects.