These strategies make perfect sense to me, and I have tried to balance my position with Jan 14 calls and others as well as shares. I do pay attention to liquidity and have noticed that trading in warrants can be very thin and spreads pretty wide. I have never bought puts, but there were plenty of times I which I had.
What I question is the idea that you can time this stock. Note the sentiment that the stock will drop if the financing is not sufficient to get MNKD through launch (time to buy?), but rise if a big enough financing deal is announced (time to buy, now?).
Regardless of how much knowlege we have MannKind remains like any other investment. Risk and reward are corrollated, and there are pleny of sound strategies depending on your risk tolerance.
It's not the discussion of WHAT to do that I am questioning, but rather the idea that you can pick JUST the right time WHEN to execute the strategy. As always the more conservative course is the gradual one.
And I am not as conservative an investor as I should be.