Markov Chains: One Step Ahead

From projecting the next site someone will visit to projecting the statistics of baseball players, Markov Chains play a critical role in both in projecting outcomes on all levels. First, hear from a Baseball Statistician about how Markov Chains are used to predict a player's performance under different circumstances, such as turf vs. grass, day game vs. night game, and hitting righty vs. lefty. Next, hear from a Web Programmer how Markov Chains are used by sites like Google to analyze the sites a given user most often visits and therefore personalize the links for that user. Next, hear from a Casino Expert about how games are designed so that people will win a certain amount of the time even while the dealer wins most of the time. Finally, hear from an Economist who discusses how Markov Chains are used to analyze factors such as volatility and asset return to predict crashes in the market.

1. Economist

2. Baseball Statistician

3. Web Expert

4. Casino Expert