Expected number of record highs in an iid sequence of discrete uniform random variables Let X1,X2,X3... be an endless sequence of random variables,
uniformly distributed on the set {1,2,3....10}.
Index i will be called "King" if X_i is greater than all of the numbers before it in the sequence. 
Calculate the expected value of the number of indices that are to be crowned Kings.
please help.
 A: A term whose index is what you call a "king" is ordinarily called a record, so you are asking for the expected number of records in an iid sequence of Uniform$\{1,...,m\}$ random variables, e.g. with $m=10$. (This assumes the terms are mutually independent.)
Shorter derivation
The probability that the $k$th distinct term is a record is ${1\over k},$
and the number of records in the infinite sequence can be written as the sum of indicators 
$$\begin{align}\sum_{k=1}^m \mathbb{1}_{\text{$k$th distinct term is a record}} 
\end{align}$$
so the expected number of records in the infinite sequence is  
$$\begin{align}
E\left(\sum_{k=1}^m \mathbb{1}_{\text{$k$th distinct term is a record}} \right)&=\sum_{i=1}^m E(\mathbb{1}_{\text{$k$th distinct term is a record}})\\[2ex]
&=\sum_{k=1}^m{1\over k}\\[2ex]
&=H_m
\end{align}$$
where $H_m=\sum_{k=1}^m{1\over k}$ is the $m$th harmonic number. (E.g., $H_{10}={7381\over 2520}$.)
Longer derivation
The probability that the $i$th term is a record is 
$$\begin{align}P_i&=\sum_{k=1}^mP((X_i=k)\cap(X_{j}< k \text{ for all }j<i)) \\[2ex]
&=\sum_{k=1}^m{1\over m}\left({k-1\over m}\right)^{i-1}
\end{align}$$
and the number of records in the infinite sequence can be written as the sum of indicators 
$$\begin{align}\sum_{i=1}^\infty \mathbb{1}_{\text{$X_i$ is a record}} 
\end{align}$$
so the expected number of records in the infinite sequence is  
$$\begin{align}
E\left(\sum_{i=1}^\infty 1_{\text{$X_i$ is a record}}\right)&=\sum_{i=1}^\infty E(1_{\text{$X_i$ is a record}})\\[2ex]
&=\sum_{i=1}^\infty P_i\\[2ex]
&=\sum_{i=1}^\infty\sum_{k=1}^m{1\over m}\left({k-1\over m}\right)^{i-1}\\[2ex]
&= {1\over m}\sum_{i=1}^\infty\sum_{k=1}^m\left({k-1\over m}\right)^{i-1}\\[2ex]
&={1\over m}\sum_{k=1}^m\sum_{i=1}^\infty\left({k-1\over m}\right)^{i-1}\\[2ex]
&={1\over m}\sum_{k=1}^m{m\over m-k+1}\\[2ex]
&={1\over m}(m\cdot \sum_{j=1}^m{1\over j})\\[2ex]
&=H_m.
\end{align}$$
A: This problem can be modeled using an absorbing Markov chain. Let $\{Y_n:n\geqslant 1\}$ be defined by $Y_1$ uniformly distributed over $\{1,\ldots,10\}$ and for $n\geqslant 1$:
$$
\mathbb P(Y_{n+1}=j\mid Y_n=i)=\begin{cases}
\frac1{10-i},& i<j\leqslant 10\\
1,& i=j=10.
\end{cases}
$$
Let $P$ be the transition matrix of this Markov chain, then $$P=\pmatrix{Q&R\\0&I} $$ where $Q$ is the substochastic matrix corresponding to transitions between transient states, $R$ that corresponding to transitions from a transient state to an absorbing state, and $I$ that corresponding to transitions between absorbing states. (Here we have only one absorbing state.) For pair of transient states $i,j$ the probability of transitioning from $i$ to $j$ in exactly $k$ steps is the $(i,j)$ entry of $Q^k$. Summing for all $k$ yields the fundamental matrix
$$
N = \sum_{k=0}Q^k.
$$
Since the rows of $Q$ sum to strictly less than one, the Neumann series converges and we have $N=(I-Q)^{-1}$, with $I$ the identity matrix. The expected number of transitions until being absorbed starting in transient state $i$ is the $i^{\mathsf{th}}$ entry of the vector $t=N\cdot\mathbf 1$, where $\mathbf 1$ is a column vector whose entries are all one. Here
$$
t=\left(
\begin{array}{c}
 \frac{9649}{2520} \\
 \frac{1041}{280} \\
 \frac{503}{140} \\
 \frac{69}{20} \\
 \frac{197}{60} \\
 \frac{37}{12} \\
 \frac{17}{6} \\
 \frac{5}{2} \\
 2 \\
\end{array}
\right),
$$
and since the initial distribution was uniform over $\{1,\ldots,10\}$, we weight each of these entries, along with $1$ (for the case when $X_1=10$), by $\frac1{10}$ and sum to obtain $$\frac{7381}{2520}. $$
A: Given an infinite sequence of uniform draws from {1,...,10}, since we are only counting records, there is nothing changed by deleting any draw that is equal to a previous draw -- the number of records will be the same.
The edited sequence is finite, and with probability 1, is a linear ordering of {1,...,10} (since the probability is $0$ that any value is omitted in the original infinite sequence). By iid uniform, all $10!$ such orderings are equally likely .
Looking at a random ordering of {1,...10}, the expected number of (left-to-right) records in location $j$ is $1/j$, since among the first $j$ entries, each one of them is equally likely to be the maximum among them.
Using linearity of expectation the expected number of records in the original sequence will be $1 + 1/2 + 1/3 +  ....  + 1/10$.
