NOTE 14 – STOCK OPTIONS

During the nine months ended September 30, 2019, the Company granted options to purchase 900,000 shares of common stock, expiring four and five years from their grant dates, with exercise prices ranging from $0.99 to $1.95 per share. During the same period in 2018, the Company granted five-year options to purchase 2,300,000 shares of common stock at exercise prices ranging from $0.14 to $2.65 per share.

The fair values of the aforementioned options granted in 2019 and 2018 of approximately $876,000 and $2,102,000, respectively, are being amortized over their vesting periods, of which approximately $101,000 and $1,743,000 was amortized at September 30, 2019 and 2018, respectively.

During the nine months ended September 30, 2019, options to purchase 3,585,000 shares of common stock were exercised at exercise prices ranging from $0.08 to $0.77 per share. At September 30, 2019 , 2,644,456 shares of common stock related to these exercises had yet to be issued by the Company as previously disclosed in Note 13 – Equity under the section entitled Common Stock Issuance Obligations. Accordingly, such shares were reflected within Common Stock Subscribed But Not Issued on the September 30, 2019 balance sheet. Of the options exercised in 2019, 2,285,000 were exercised on a cashless basis with the exercise prices paid via the surrender of 523,192 shares of common stock.

During the nine months ended September 30, 2018, options to purchase 700,000 shares of common stock were exercised at exercise prices ranging from $0.08 to $0.63 per share. Of the options exercised in 2018, 400,000 were exercised on a cashless basis with the exercise price paid via the surrender of 98,000 shares of common stock.

During the nine months ended September 30, 2019 and 2018, options to purchase 80,000 and 300,000, respectively, were forfeited, resulting in a reduction of amortization of approximately $170,000 in 2019, and zero in 2018.

Stock options outstanding and exercisable as of September 30, 2019 were: