## Summary
An honest, tiered cross-library benchmark — and the optimization pass it triggered.
### Performance (wickra-core, outputs unchanged)
Profiling against the other Rust TA crates exposed real inefficiencies. Each
benchmarked indicator is now **5–79% faster** in both streaming and batch:
- **SMA, Bollinger**: flat `Box<[f64]>` ring buffers replace `VecDeque` (−69…79%).
- **RSI**: `100·ag/(ag+al)` collapses three divisions into one; Wilder smoothing
hoists `1/period` out of the hot path (−46%).
- **ATR**: reciprocal hoisted (−42%).
- **EMA/RSI/ATR**: per-tick `Option<f64>` hot state → bare `f64` + ready flag.
Net result vs `kand`: Wickra now wins **RSI, Bollinger and ATR** (streaming), and
ties `ta-rs` on SMA — up from losing every indicator 1.5–6× before.
### Benchmark harness
New `crates/wickra-bench` (publish=false): a Criterion benchmark comparing Wickra
against `kand`, `ta-rs` and `yata` on an identical BTCUSDT candle series, in
streaming and batch modes. Peer APIs were verified against their source, not
guessed. Wired into the nightly `cross-library-bench` workflow as a separate job.
### Honest README
The benchmark section is rewritten into three layered tables (Rust core vs Rust
crates; Python vs the Python ecosystem) that **show the losses as well as the
wins**. The "only library that combines…" claim is gone; the new framing is
breadth + multi-language reach + the deliberate safety trade-off that costs raw
speed. Added an origin/why-slower rationale and a star CTA.
### Python benchmark
Added `tulipy` runners and expanded per-tick streaming coverage to SMA/EMA/RSI/
MACD/Bollinger. `bench.in`/`bench.txt` now lock `TA-Lib` + `tulipy` (hash-pinned);
`pandas-ta` stays out (it requires Python ≥ 3.12, the bench runs on 3.11).
### Notes
- TA-Lib/tulipy numbers in the README Python table are marked ⧗ — they are
produced by the CI Linux job (C extensions don't build cleanly on every
desktop), not measured locally.
- The matching `wickra-docs` prose update is committed separately and will be
pushed with the release, per the docs-don't-lead-the-registries rule.
Verified locally: `cargo fmt`, `cargo test --workspace --all-features` (3413 core
+ bindings), `cargo clippy --workspace --all-targets --all-features -D warnings`,
Node build + 498 tests, and pytest all green.
