Online Prediction of Stochastic Sequences with High Probability Regret Bounds

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Frey, Matthias, Manton, Jonathan H., Zhu, Jingge
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2026
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author Frey, Matthias
Manton, Jonathan H.
Zhu, Jingge
author_facet Frey, Matthias
Manton, Jonathan H.
Zhu, Jingge
contents We revisit the classical problem of universal prediction of stochastic sequences with a finite time horizon $T$ known to the learner. The question we investigate is whether it is possible to derive vanishing regret bounds that hold with high probability, complementing existing bounds from the literature that hold in expectation. We propose such high-probability bounds which have a very similar form as the prior expectation bounds. For the case of universal prediction of a stochastic process over a countable alphabet, our bound states a convergence rate of $\mathcal{O}(T^{-1/2} δ^{-1/2})$ with probability as least $1-δ$ compared to prior known in-expectation bounds of the order $\mathcal{O}(T^{-1/2})$. We also propose an impossibility result which proves that it is not possible to improve the exponent of $δ$ in a bound of the same form without making additional assumptions.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_16236
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Online Prediction of Stochastic Sequences with High Probability Regret Bounds
Frey, Matthias
Manton, Jonathan H.
Zhu, Jingge
Machine Learning
Information Theory
We revisit the classical problem of universal prediction of stochastic sequences with a finite time horizon $T$ known to the learner. The question we investigate is whether it is possible to derive vanishing regret bounds that hold with high probability, complementing existing bounds from the literature that hold in expectation. We propose such high-probability bounds which have a very similar form as the prior expectation bounds. For the case of universal prediction of a stochastic process over a countable alphabet, our bound states a convergence rate of $\mathcal{O}(T^{-1/2} δ^{-1/2})$ with probability as least $1-δ$ compared to prior known in-expectation bounds of the order $\mathcal{O}(T^{-1/2})$. We also propose an impossibility result which proves that it is not possible to improve the exponent of $δ$ in a bound of the same form without making additional assumptions.
title Online Prediction of Stochastic Sequences with High Probability Regret Bounds
topic Machine Learning
Information Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.16236