We focus on inverse preconditioners based on minimizing $F(X) = 1-\cos(XA,I)$, where $XA$ is the preconditioned matrix and $A$ is symmetric and positive definite. We present and analyze gradient-type methods to minimize $F(X)$ on a suitable compact set. For that we use the geometrical properties of the non-polyhedral cone of symmetric and positive definite matrices, and also the special properties of $F(X)$ on the feasible set. Preliminary and encouraging numerical results are also presented in which dense and sparse approximations are included.