| Abstract: | Given a sequence of n independent random variables with common continuous distribution, we propose a simple adaptive online policy that selects a monotone increasing subsequence. We show that the expected number of monotone increasing selections made by such a policy is within  of optimal. Our construction provides a direct and natural way for proving the  ‐optimality gap. An earlier proof of the same result made crucial use of a key inequality of Bruss and Delbaen 5] and of de‐Poissonization. |
