I recently got curious about stocks after researching Elon and all his shenanigans lately. Prompted a few questions for me. I think from what I've researched a stock is a share in a company (owning a portion of it). I was curious about a few things, can a stock go below zero? From what I've read that seems to not be the case but I saw people mentioning possible exceptions online.
Also I've seen a video where they mention investing in an "up-and-coming" business early can yield a huge profit, why is that? Is it because you own a larger portion, more people started investing, or a combination of those two? Like why risk investing in the up-and-comer when you can invest in something popular? Is the popular option slower to turn a profit?